


ill fc^t*:|:i!:i"^- 









THE LIFE 



or 



NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 



BV 



P. c: HEADLEY, 

lUTUOB or "TUB Lira or tii« xiirBiii tottrnism," «to. 



NEW YORK: 

DERBY & JACKSON, 119 NASSAU STREET. 

1859. 



1^769 



Entered, Recording to Act or Congress, in the year 18M, by 
DERBTAJACK80N, 
Id the Clerk's Office of the District Conrt, for the Sonthcm Diatrlct of New Tork. 




•TBRKOTTFED BT 
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PRINTED BT 
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18 UE8PECTFULLY DEDICATEU, 
AS AN KXPKEflBION OF 8INCKKE UKOARD 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE 



In presenting the public with this new biography of 
Napoleon Bonaparte, the author did not expect to add 
new facts, or modify those with which the world is fa- 
miliar, in his career. We have quoted often from well- 
known authors the mere statement of stereotyped facts, 
and have endeavored, in the great condensation of matter 
necessary in a volume no larger than this biography, 
to embrace all the illustrative and stirring scenes in 
Napoleon's history. The authors chiefly referred to are 
Bourrienne, The Berkley Men, Lockhart, Yon Rotteck, 
Encyclopedia Americana, Confidential Correspondence 
with Joseph, and Abbott's Napoleon. A striking fact, 
omitted entirely by the latter, the invasion of St. Do- 
mingo, is given at length, from documents furnished 
by B. C. Clarke, Esq., of Boston, ex-Consul at Hayti, 
from which, by his permission, extracts are freely 
made. With but little comment generally, the convinc- 
ing testimony of the recently published Confidential Cor- 
respondence, upon some of the darkest deeds of Napoleon, 
is furnished by the insertion of interesting letters. The 
views expressed on these pages are neither those of 
imqualified and bitter condemnation, which distinguish 



VI PREFACE. 

Scott and Lockhart ; nor the equally extreme and more 
dangerous sentiments of boundless admiration and ful- 
some praise, which glow in the language, and on every 
page of the more attractive volumes of Mr. Abbot. We 
can not, we confess, comprehend the apparent sincerity 
of this author, in the delineation of Napoleon as a re- 
publican philanthropist; a faithful husband; a warrior 
who grieved over the necessity of shedding blood ; and 
finally, a martyr-saint on the rocks of St, Helena. He 
was not a monster of unalleviated depravity ; nor was 
he a truly philanthropic and good man. He loved his 
chosen profession of arms ; he began his career a repub- 
lican ; he grew in fame and ambition, until he believed 
himself appointed to rule and redeem a continent. In 
the pursuit of his object, like the unjust judge, "he 
neither feared God, nor regarded man." 

The King of kings hung a dark cloud over his " star 
of destiny," when the cruel blow fell on the exiled wife, 
whose only crime was that heaven had written her to 
him childless. That cloud expanded till it darkened all 
the sky ; and bolt after bolt came down upon his lofty 
brow, and laid it low on a captive's pillow within the 
confines of a rocky island, where, Prometheus-like, he 
was compelled to feel the wasting power of burning 
memories and awakened conscience, until death removed 
him to a more righteous adjudication. 

We quote, in conclusion, from an editorial in a leading 
paper of the daily press, the name of whose author is to 
us unknown ; but whose summary of character and re- 
sults must command the assent of the impai^al reader 
of history : 



PREFACE. VU 

" No pirate ever more foully decoyed, by the use of a 
false flag, a merchantman into his cKitches, than I^apoleon 
possessed himself of Spain, so far as he ever did possess 
it. There was absolutely no French, no Bonapartean 
party among the Spanish people from first to last — 
barely a little handfull of titled office-seekers, and noth- 
ing more. The greatest mistake of Napoleon's career, 
because the most flagrant crime, was that which trans- 
formed the Spanish nation from serviceable allies into 
annoying, wasting, exhausting, if not formidable foes. A 
true history of Napoleon would show that, whereas the 
good deeds of his career were abundantly prospered and 
recompensed, and the enemies who wantonly conspired 
to overthrow him were always defeated and humbled, so, 
when he began wantonly to trample on the necks of na- 
tions, he sowed dragon's teeth, whence arose in due time 
the foes who crushed him. His Italian, Austrian, PruS' 
sian, PoUsh campaigns were generally successful, becauso 
he had right on his side ; while his Egyptian, Spanish, 
Russian forays, though promising success at the outset, 
proved disastrous, and finally ruinous, because they were 
impelled by rapacity and founded in wrong. * * * 
Let it never be forgotten that the kings were impotent 
against the Man of Destiny, imtil the people rallied to 
his overthrow — until German and Spaniard went with 
Russ and Hun to compass his downfall. The monarchs 
afterward betrayed the masses, and snatched most of the 
fruits of the common conquest ; for which let them be 
held to the sternest reckoning ; but let not this obscure 
the great truth that Napoleon fell because he betrayed 
the sacred cause of the inalienable rights of man, ai/d 



VIU PREFACE. 

leagued himself with the people's hereditary oppressors, 
divorcing his noble and faithful wife, to intermarry with 
them, laboring personally to eradicate from the mind of 
Alexander his liberal impulses, reducing France to a 
state of Asiatic despotism, and the surrounding nations 
to that of her conquest, professing an intense horror of 
'Jacobins,' by which term he designated all earnest 
repubhcans, though he had himself been a professor not 
merely of republicanism, but of Jacobinism, in his obscure 
and powerless youth. When Napoleon's true character 
shall be inscribed on his tomb, the awed" millions shaU 
gather before it and read — ' Here lies the thunderbolt, 
the idol, the spoUed chUd of democracy, who betrayed 
her to make himself an emperor, and died a fettered and 
heart-broken exile. Let all who may hereafter be tempt- 
ed to betray the cause of Human Liberty be warned by 
his example.' " 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



Napoleon's birth-place. — The Bonaparte family. — The mother's 
character. — Napoleon's boyhood. — Enters the Military School 
at Brienne. — Incidents while there. — Revisits Corsica and meets 
General Paoli. — He is promoted to a place in the Royal Mili- 
tary Acadenjy of Paris. — His fraternal interest. — Receives a 
Lieutenant's commission. — Falls in love. — Life at Valence.— 
His appearance at M. Neckar's party. — Is present at the storm- 
ing of the King's palace by the populace. — France and Napo- 
leon. — Again visits Corsica. — Is arrested. — The flight of the 
Bonaparte family. — The siege of Toulon. — Junot. — The general 
assault. — The victory. — The slaughter. — Napoleon appointed 
on the Coast Survey. — Appointed Chief of Battalion. — Another 
love-affair. — Family destitution. — Letters. — The Convention 
and Napoleon. — Tlie insurrections of the Sections. — The de- 
feat. — ^Eugene and his father's sword. — Napoleon and Josephine. 13 



CHAPTER n. 

Napoleon is appointed to the chief command. — His youth. — Leaves 
Paris for Nice. — Visits his mother. — The contending armies. — 
The character of Napoleon. — His new tactics. — His address to 
the soldiers. — The objects of the campaign. — The route of pass- 
ing the Alps. — The conflict. — The victory. — The pursuit of the 
Austrians. — Reaches Cherasco, near Turin. — Dictates terms of 
peace to the king of Sardinia. — Again addresses the army. — 
His knowledge of men. — Morals. — Crosses the Po. — Battle of 
Lodi. — Napoleon at Milan. — Letter to Joseph. — Treaty with the 
Dukes of Parma and Modena. — Address to the army. — Jealousy 
of the Directory. — Napoleon pursues the Austrians. — Insurrec- 
tion in Lombardy. — Treaty with the Vatican. — "Wurmzer ap- 
pointed to the command. — The Austrians advance. — Battle of 
Lonato. — Napoleon's peril. — Incidents. — Letter to Joseph. — 
Castiglione. — Retreat of Wurmzer. — Mantua besieged. — Al- 
vinzi sent into Italy. — The battles of Areola. — Alvinzi routed. — 
Battle of Rivoh. — Mantua surrenders. — ^Letter to Josephine. — 
Napoleon's success 53 



CHAPTER in. 

Napoleon and the Pope. — ^Venice. — Archduke Charles. — Battle of 
* Tagliamento. — Incidents. — Retreat of Charles. — Negotiations. 

1* 



: CONTENTS. 

PAQB 

— Pichegru. — The Directory. — Treaty of Campo Formio. — 
Court of Milan. — Josephine. — Napoleon at Rastadt. — He 
reaches Paris. — His reception. — Life at the Capital. — Napo- 
leon and England. — He is appointed to command an Invasion 
of England. — Ho urges an expedition to Egypt. — Embarkation. 
— Malta taken. — Letter to Joseph. — He arrives at Alexandria. — 
Addresses the Army and the Egyptians. — March up the Nile. 
—The Mamelukes. — Battle of the Pyramids. — Cairo taken. — 
Letter to Joseph. — Battle of Aboukir. — Napoleon's Power. — 
Expedition to the Red Sea. — Siege of Acre. — The Plague. — 
Napoleon retreats to Egypt. — Scenes in the March. — The 
Turks defeated at Aboukir. — Napoleon returns to France. — 
Reasons. — The Domestic Sorrow. — The Reconciliation. — The 
Crisis 99 



CHAPTER IV. 

Napoleon in Paris. — The 18th Brumaire. — Napoleon at St. Cloud. 
— The consular government. — The motives of Napoleon — Re- 
forms. — The new constitution. — Napoleon at the Tuilleries. — 
Josephine. — Personal appearance of the First Consul. — ^Newa 
of "Washington's death. — The Bourbons. — Napoleon's policy. — 
Propositions of peace with England. — Correspondence. — Causes 
of war. — Movement of the armies. — Capitulation of Genoa. — 
Napoleon at Marengo. — The battle. — The results. — ^Napoleon 
at Milan. — Renewed hopes of the Bourbons. — A new cam- 
paign.— Battle of Hohenlinden. — The emperor sues for peace. 
— Napoleon returns. — His work of reform of national advance- 
ment. — The infernal machine. — The spring of 1801. — The Bat- 
tle of Copenhagen. — The English take Egypt. — Invasion of 
England. — Peace of Amiens. — Letters. — Napoleon's designs 
of reform. — Treaty with the Pope. — Legion of Honor. — Con- 
sulate for life. — Colonial conquests. — Napoleon and the in- 
vasion of Hayti 14'/ 



CHAPTER V. 

Omens of discord between England and France. — Violations of 
treaty, — ^Abuse of Napoleon. — Remonstrance. — Interview of 
the First Consul with Lord Whitworth. — Declaration of war. — 
Successes.: — Descent upon England. — Conspiracy. — Pichegru. — 
Duke d'Enghein. — Napoleon emperor. — The coronation. — Na- 
poleon's sway. — Coronation at Milan. — Napoleon hastens to 
Paris. — Omens of war. — New coalition against France. — 
Napoleon desires peace. — The conflict opens. — Napoleon is vic- 
torious. — Address to the soldiers. — Marches toward Vienna. — 
Correspondence. — Austerlitz — 'Letters. — Treaty of peace at 
Presburg. — Death of Pitt. — Royal plans. — Letters. — Naples 
seized. — Sub-kingdoms. — Napoleon and Mr. Fox. — Letters. — 
Another campaign. — Prussia enters the field. — Battle of Jena 
and Auerstadt. — ^Napoleon enters Berlin. — ^Letters. — ^Pardons 
Prince Hatzfield 205 



CONTENTS. XI 



CHAPTER VI. 

PAOS 

The position of the hostile parties. — The Berlin decrees. — The 
war goes on. — Battle of Eylau. — Letter to Josephine. — Offers 
of peace rejected. — Preparations for another campaign. — Battle 
of Friedland. — The peace of Tilsit. — Friendship of Napoleon 
and Alexander. — Correspondence. — Napoleon's magnificent 
plans. — Code Napoleon. — Designs upon Spain and Portugal. — 
Letters. — Tour to Italy. — Disagreement with Lueien. — Por- 
tugal taken. — Invasion of Spain. — Letters. — The abdication. — 
Joseph designated for the vacant throne. — His reluctant and 
unquiet reign. — The meeting of the emperors at Erfurth. — 
Josephine's divorce suggested. — Revolution in Spain. — Vic- 
tories. — Letters. — Joseph again enthroned. — His complaint of 
Napoleon. — Intelligence of an Austrian campaign.— Battles of 
Eckmuhl and Wagram. — Quarrel with the Pope. — Peace. — 
Divorce of Josephine 267 

CHAPTER Vn. 

Tho choice of a new empress. — Josephine's experience. — Napo- 
leon's power shaken. — The birth of a prince. — Propositions of 
peace with England. — War with Russia.-r-His progress to Dres- 
den. — He reaches Dantzic. — The Grand Army cross the Niemen. 
— The Poles hail the presence of the emperor with hope. — The 
Russian method of destruction to the enemy. — Napoleon enters 
Moscow. — -He occupies the Kremlin. — Letter to Alexander. — 
Conflagration of Moscow. — The retreat. — The march to 
Smolensk. — Conspiracy in Paris. — Marshal Nay. — His sup- 
posed death. — His rescue. — The wasting army reach the 
Beresina. — The tragical crossing of the river Wilna. — Napo- 
leon returns to Paris. — Reaches the palace at night. — The 
rear-guard of the Grand Army 339 

CHAPTER VIU. 

Napoleon's reception after the defeat in Russia. — His character. 
— The new coalition. — Battle of Lutzen. — Entrance into Dres- 
den. — Battle of Bautzen. — Negotiations. — Metternich. — The 
plan of campaign — Siege of Dresden. — Disasters. — Napoleon's 
desperate courage. — Battle of Leipsic. — Murat abandons the 
emperor's cause. — Treachery of the allies. — The Senate of 
France falter in their support. — Napoleon's rebuke. — Corre- 
spondence with Joseph. — Napoleon at the Tuilleries. — He enters 
on the final struggle. — Battle of Brienne. — Letters. — "Want of 
arms. — Letters. — The progress of tlie alhes. — Napoleon's ex- 
pedition on the Marne. — His victories. — Letters from Joseph 
on the condition of Paris. — Negotiations for peace. — Napoleon's 
account of the crisis in his afiliirs. — His policy in his extremity. 
— Battle of Leon. — Rheims. — Letters to Josepli. — The last strug- 
gle. — The allies advance toward Paris. — The flight of the 
Court. — The capitulation 369 



Xll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER IX. 

PAGB 

Caulaincourt secures an interview with the Czar of Russia. — Scenes 
in the capital. — Correspondence between Napoleon and Joseph- 
— The abdication. — The royal debate upon the disposal of 
the fallen emperor. — Marmont's treachery. — The conditions of 
the allies. — Joseph urges peace. — Napoleon's anguish. — At- 
tempts suicide. — Adieu to his army. — Josephine and Maria 
Louisa. — Napoleon embarks for Elba. — The return of Louis 
XVIIL — His reign. — Napoleon at Elba. — His return to France. 
— ^The tidings reach Talleyrand on the eve of a ball. — Vaia at- 
tempt to regain the empress and her son. — Letters. — ^The 
exile again on the throne. — The allies enter the field. — Napo- 
leon leads the Erench army. — The plan of the campaign. — The 
battles of Ligny and Quatre-Bras. — Waterloo. — The charge of 
the Old Guard. — The victory of Wellington. — The flight of 
Napoleon. — He reaches the Elysee. — The meeting of the Cham- 
bers. — The debates. — The abdication 423 

CHAPTER X. 

The second abdication. — The indecision and distress of Napoleon. 
— He resolves to take refuge in the United States. — He leaves 
Malmaison for Rochefort. — Letter from Bertrand to Joseph. — 
Negotiations with England for passports. — These are denied. 
— Napoleon throws himself upon the mercy of England. — 
The reception, and voyage to the English coast. — The decision 
respecting the emperor's fate. — He contemplates suicide. — The 
departure for St. Helena. — Arrival at the island. — Napoleon's 
residence. — His treatment in exile. — His habits. — Progress of 
disease. — His religious character. — His last hours. — General 
Bertrand's account of the emperor's death. — His burial. — . 
Tho removal of his remains to France 450 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 



CHAPTER I. 

9 

Napoleon's birth place. — The Bonaparte family. — The mother's charac- 
ter. — Napoleon's boyhood. — Enters the Military School at Brienne. — 
Incidents while there. — Revisits Corsica and meets General Paoli. — 
He is promoted to a place in the Royal Military Academy of Paris. — 
His fraternal interest. — Receives a Lieutenant's commission. — Falls 
in love. — Life at Valence. — His appearance at M. Neckar's party. 
— Is present at the storming of the King's palace by the populace. 
— Prance and Napoleon. — Again visits Corsica. — Is- arrested. — The 
flight of the Bonaparte family. — The siege of Toulon. — Junot. — The 
general assault. — The victory. — The slaughter. — Napoleon appointed 
on the Coast Survey. — Appointed Chief of Battalion. — Another 
love-affair. — Family destitution. — Letters. — The Convention and 
Napoleon. — The insurrection of the Sections. — The defeat. — Eugene 
and his father's sword. — Napoleon and Josephine. 

Corsica, the third in extent, among tlie Italian 
islands, lies in the blue waters of the Mediterranean 
sea, one hundred miles from France, and fifty from 
Tuscany. It contains nearly four thousand square 
miles, and one hundred and eighty thousand inhabi- 
tants. Its scenery is varied. Traversed by ranges of 
mountains, whose summits are covered with perpetual 
snow, veined with rivers, and abounding in fruitful 
'valleys, the island presents wild and beautiful land- 



14 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

scapes. Successively under the sway of tlie Cartlia- 
ginians, Eomans, Vandals, Greeks, Groths and Genoese, 
in 1769 it nominallj'' submitted to the French, though 
partisan warfare continued many years. The popu- 
lation, chiefly Italians in origin and customs, never 
developed the resources of their productive soil. 
Multitudes lived on chestnuts ; but cherished the love 
of freedom and independence, indomitable valor, and 
unrelenting revenge of a wrong. 

August 15, 1769, at Ajaccio, two months after 
the subjugation of Corsica by the French, Letitia 
Bonaparte .gave birth to her second son, ISTapoleon. 
His father was of ancient and honorable descent. 
He was a successful lawyer, but when the French 
army landed, he enlisted under the command of Gen- 
eral Paoli, to fight the battles of his brave country- 
men. 

His noble wife was from the distinguished family 
of Eamolini, and was regarded one of the most beau • 
tiful maidens of Corsica. She was married at the age 
of sixteen, and became a widow at thirty-five, with 
eight living children, and three among the dead. The 
family group, whose names have been so conspicuous 
in the annals of France, were Joseph, Napoleon, Lu- 
cien, Louis, Jerome, Eliza, Pauline, and Caroline. 

Of Napoleon's mother he has given a brief but sug- 
gestive sketch : " She had the head of a man on the 
shoulders of a woman. Left without a guide or pro- 
tector, she was obliged to assume the management of 
affairs : but the burden did not overcome her. She 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 15 

administered, every tiling with, a degree of sagacity 
not to be expected from her age and sex. Her ten- 
derness was joined with severity : she punished, re- 
warded, all alike ; the good, the bad, nothing escaped 
her. Losses, privations, fatigue, had no effect upon 
her ; she endured all, braved all. Ah ! what a wo- 
man ! Where look for her equal ?" 

She bore within her graceful form the future Em- 
peror, amid the stormy scenes of revolution ; and 
returned from an expedition among the mountains, 
whither she had followed her husband, to give the 
world the gifted child. If these facts had nothing to 
do with the intellectual power and bias of the son, 
they were significant of his marvelous career upon the 
battle-field of a hemisphere. Sixteen years later, in 
1785, Charles Bonaparte, the father, died at Mont- 
pelier, in France, of cancer in the stomach ; an heredi- 
tary disease, transmitted to the illustrious son. 

Besides the city residence, Madame Bonaparte's 
brother had a beautiful villa on the sea-shore. Mass- 
ive rocks stood around it, and the solitude was 
undisturbed, excepting by the murmur of the waves 
breaking gently upon the beach, and the merry voices 
of childhood. Neither the mother, her brother, nor 
the happy children, dreamed that the delicate feet, 
whose impression on the sand the advancing tides 
effaced, were to shake thrones in their march of power, 
and echo in the palace-halls of many kingdoms. 

,The ruins of this romantic retreat still bear the 
name of " Napoleon's Grotto," and stories are told of 



16 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

liis solitary reveries under tlie shadow of tlie leaning 
granite, and on tlie margin of the sea ; of Ms young 
love for an Italian girl, Giacominetta ; wHch, on 
account of liis careless attire, was the subject of a 
couplet shouted after him in his pastimes at school : 

" Napoleon di mezza calgetta^ 
■ Fa I'amore a Giacominetta."* 

He was not an attractive, though remarkable boy. 
His reserve, and an irritability, which D'Israeli would 
call "the irritability of genius," repelled familiarity, 
and even made his brothers and sisters distant, while 
they recognized his intellectual superiority. A ven- 
erable uncle, Lucien Bonaparte, when dying, called 
the children to his side, and said to Joseph, " You, 
Joseph, are the eldest ; but Napoleon is the head of the 
familj'-. Take care to remember my words." 

Kapoleon's favorite sport was mimic battle with his 
miniature brass cannon, displaying the almost invaria- 
ble fact in the early history of eminent talent; the drift 
of the mental powers ; the direction, under occult and 
forming influences, of the greatest ef&ciency and suc- 
cess of a mind which has a work to do, and which but 
few men, if any other one, could perform. Yarious inci- 
dents disclosed his self-reliance and pride of character. 

He was once accused of a fault committed by an 
associate ; but scorning to declare his innocence, he 
suffered without a complaint the unmerited punishment, 

* " Napoleon with his stockings half-o£^ 
Makes love to Giacominetta." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 17 

At another time, when detected regaling his appetite 
on figs in an orchard near his home, the proprietor 
threatened to reveal his guilt to his mother. This was 
more than ho could endure in silence ; for he both 
feared and loved the maternal guide of his youth. 
With simple eloquence, he pleaded his cause, and 
gained his suit. Napoleon had heard much of the 
French invasions and fierce conflicts ; and he cordially 
hated the people who afterward adored him, and to 
whom he gave his warmest affection. January, 1779, 
Napoleon, then ten years of age, accompanied his 
father, who was a member of the deputation repre- 
senting the Corsican noblesse, to the Court of Louis 
XVI., and entered the military school at Brienne, 
where Count Marbeuf had obtained for him admis-* 
sion. The parting with his mother was so touching, 
the impression remained fresh upon his mind during 
all the years of his stormy life. 

The exciting scenes of travel, and the splendor of 
Paris, were new and strange to the young islander, 
whose existence dawned and deepened into rosy morn- 
ing among the ancient dwelHngs and secluded retreats 
of the land he cherished. At Brienne, he encountered 
an unexpected embarrassment, which stung his proud 
spirit. He was an Italian, ^nth. limited means of 
support. Around him were sons of the aristocracy, 
speaking the language of France, and without disguise, 
revealing a bitter scorn of his humbler position. His 
hatred of the French was made intense ; and with a 
threat of revenge for the insult, he withdrew from the 



18 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

associations of the gay scions of a waning nobility, 
and devoted himself to the severest studies of the 
institution. In general literature he was not ambitious 
of excellence, but in the branches which directly told 
upon the soldier's complete preparation for the field 
of action, he rapidly rose above all rivals, and stood 
at the head of the aspiring candidates for military 
honors. To the students were allowed plots of land, 
to be used for profit or pleasure according to the choice 
of each. Kapoleon appropriated his portion to soli- 
tary study, adding shrubbery and flowers to increase 
its shade and beauty. Here, as at all times, he nour- 
ished that thirst for military glory, which death only 
quenched, freezing upon his silent lips the shout of 
conflict, " Tete d' armee !" 

During the remarkable winter of 1784, when snow 
lay in heaps around Brienne, Napoleon rallied the 
stadents under his command, to erect, on scientific 
principles, an immense fortification from the frost- 
quarry nature had bountifully furnished. The com- 
]3leted fort was the wonder and admiration of thousands. 
The general of both the besieged and besieging forces, 
he displayed surprising skill in the frequent sham- 
fights which occurred before the white walls of the 
bastions, while the brief winter campaign continued. 

Napoleon seriously scarred a comrade's forehead, 
and amply repaid him in after life, when royal gifts 
were at his disposal. 

His vacations were spent on his native island ; and 
often in company with the brave and restless PaoH, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 19 

he was urged by him to enlist in the cause of the 
patriots. The compliment the Italian gave Napoleon, 
alluding to his famihar study of Plutarch's Lives, was 
designed to win the youthful cadet to his banner. He 
said to him with enthusiasm, " Oh, Napoleon 1 you do 
not at all resemble the moderns. You belong to the 
heroes of Plutarch." 

With some allowance made for the romantic color- 
ing and interest thrown over the youth of transcendent 
genius, it is still apparent that Napoleon made an 
unusually deep impression on all who knew him. 
With a frail form, a large head, a clear, penetrating 
eye, and rare powers of conversation, he gave sure 
token of pre- eminence among men. In his fifteenth 
year, he became one of the three students selected an- 
nually from the cadets, for promotion to the Eoyal 
Military School in the splendid capital of France, 
The following note from the papers of the War De- 
partment, shows the rank and prospects of the Cor- 
sican upon his entrance into the Parisian Academy : 

" State of the king's scholars eligible to enter into 
service, or to pass to the school at Paris : Monsieur de 
Bonaparte (Napoleon), born 15th August, 1769; in 
height five feet six and a half inches ; has finished his 
fourth season ; of a good constitution, health excellent, 
character mild, honest, and grateful ; conduct exem- 
plary ; has always distinguished himself by application 
to mathematics; understands history and geography 
tolerably well ; is indifferently skilled in merely orna- 
mental studies, and in Latin, in which he has only 



20 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

finished his fourth course ; would make an excellent 
sailor ; deserves to be passed to the school at Paris." 
In his new and aristocratic halls, Napoleon kept his 
object steadily in view. Turning with contempt from 
the means of present display and indulgence, like all 
great men whose eje has been on an eminence in the 
future, unseen bj common minds, he studied, thought, 
and dreamed alone of a brilliant and undisputed suc- 
cess in the profession of arms. Though imbued with 
republican sentiments which not unfrequently gave 
offense to the loyal subjects of the monarch, and pos- 
sessed of manly and generous traits of character, yet 
was he a devotee most ardent of Mars, the deity of 
his panting ambition. Through all the history of his 
youth, we do not discover any indications of religious 
feeling, or sense of moral obligation. The spirit of the 
age, which was military glory, regardless of the sacri- 
fice of human life in its attainment, fired the unfolding 
genius of Napoleon. He was not cruel and heartless ; 
but the grandeur of extended conquest, and the pros- 
perity of France, filled his mind with gorgeous visions 
of his sanguinary career. He displayed his fraternal 
regard in the attention he now gave to the education 
of his brother Louis, who in his " Response a Sir Wal- 
ter Scott," refers to it with great affection. Up to this 
time, he nourished a dislike of '.ne French. The 
gradual transfer of his interests from Corsica to the 
land of his adoption, was doubtless effected by the 
power of new associations, the hopeless struggles of 
his isolated people, and the magnificent field opening 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 21 

before him in the unquiet realm of Louis XVI., where 
principles in harmony with his own political bias, 
were to be the mighty forces of civil commotion. 

In September, 1785, when only sixteen years of 
age, Napoleon appeared before the board of examin- 
ation, on trial for his first appointment in the royal 
army. In mathematics, the distinguished astronomer, 
La Place, was the intellectual inquisitor of the anxious 
cadets. Bonaparte sustained himself with honor, and 
so familiar was he with the pages of history, that 
Keruglion, who conducted the examination in this 
department, made the following significant and pro- 
phetic memorandum opposite his name: " A Corsican 
by character and by birth; this young man will 
distinguish himself in the world, if favored by for- 
tune." 

He immediately received the commission to lieu- 
tenant in the regiment of artillery Le F^re, and no 
subsequent promotion thrilled his whole being with 
more intense delight than this signal of his future 
destiny. 

Soon after, he became interested in his second 
romance of love, giving evidence of a nature attract- 
ively susceptible to the charms of female society, and 
the fascination of beautiful women. He frequented, 
among other cultivated families, the house of Madame 
du Cojombier, whose daughter threw over his restless 
heart the spell of a strong, -though transitory attach- 
ment. When in after life he alluded to it, he remarks, 
""We were the most innocent creatures imaginable. 



22 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

We contrived sliort interviews together. I well re- 
member one which, took place on a mid-summer's 
morning, just as the light began to dawn. It will 
scarcely be credited that all our felicity consisted in 
eating cherries together." ISTapoleon's post was at this 
time at Valence, from which his regiment was re- 
moved to Lyons. Embarrassed for want of means to 
support the rank of even a subordinate officer, he 
was taken sick, and found, as ever, in the favor his 
impressive presence won from woman, the most gener- 
ous attention in the care of a Grerman lady, who was 
not forgotten when he commanded the resources of a 
kingdom. He entered the lists as competitor for a 
prize offered for the best essay upon "the institutions 
most likely to contribute to human happiness," and 
received the award. 

An Italian gentleman gives an entertaining account 
of Xapoleon, in a splendid evening party at M. 
Neckar's. The Bastile had fallen, and the murmurs 
of an excited populace rose with ominous distinctness 
around the throne of the king-— the first undertone of 
that revolutionary earthquake, soon to overthrow the 
entire order of things, and startle the world. Alfieri, 
Lafayette, Mirabeau, La Grrange, and other distin- 
guished Frenchmen, were in the brilliant saloon. 
Madame de Stael and Josephine adorned the Intel 
lectual assemblage. Kapoleon, who was introduced 
by Abbd Eaynal, attracted attention by his extraor- 
. dinary conversational powers. 

AUusion was made to the refusal of the soldiers to 



TTFE OF NAPOLEON" BOjSTAPARTE. 23 

fire upon tlie lawless multitude, when lie replied in 
language whicli is entirely characteristic^ and descrip- 
tive of his subsequent plan of action : " Excuse me, 
my lord, if I venture to interrupt you ; but as I am 
an officer, 1 must claim the privilege of expressing my 
sentiments. It is true that I am very young, and it 
may appear presumptuous in me to address so many 
distinguished men ; but during the last three years I 
have paid intense attention to our political troubles. 
I see with sorrow the state of our country, and I will 
incur censure rather than pass unnoticed principles 
which are not only unsound, but which are subversive 
of all government. As much as any one I desire to 
see all abuses, antiquated privileges, and usurped 
rights annulled. Nay ! as I am at the commencement 
of my career, it will be my best policy as well as my 
duty, to support the progress of popular institutions, 
and to promote reform in every branch of the public 
administration. But as in the last twelve months I 
have witnessed repeated alarming popular disturb- 
ances, and have seen our best men divided into fac- 
tions, which threaten to be irreconcilable, I sincerely 
believe that now, more than ever, a strict discipline 
in the army is absolutely necessary for the safety of 
our constitutional government, and for the mainten- 
ance of order. Nay ! if our troops are not compelled 
unhesitatingly to obey the commands of the executive, 
we shall be exposed to the blind fury of democratic 
passions, which will render France the most miserable 
country on the globe. The ministry may be assured 



24 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

that, if the daily increasing arrogance of the Parisian 
mob is not repressed by a strong arm, and social order 
rigidly maintained, we shall see not only this capital, 
but every other city in France, thrown into a state of 
indescribable anarchy, while the real friends of liberty, 
the enlightened patriots, now working for the best 
good of our country, will sink beneath a set of dema- 
gogues, who with louder outcries for freedom on their 
tongues, will be, in reality, but a horde of savages, 
worse than the Neros of old." 

nis next elevation in military rank, was the first 
lieutenancy, conferred upon him the same year. 

He was in Paris the 20th of June, 1793, when the 
mob went surging through the streets, toward the 
Tuileries; and he hastened to the scene of action. 
He saw it all : the royal garden thronged with exas- 
perated men brandishing their various weapons, and 
the trembling monarch in the balcony of his palace 
wearing the Jacobin's red cap. 

His indignation was kindled toward the masses 
governed by passion, and blindly bent on regicide, 
and his scornful pity awakened in behalf of the yield- 
ing monarch, unequal to the nation's crisis. Turn- 
ing to Bourrienne, with whom he was walking, he 
exclaimed, " What madness I he should have blown 
four or five hundred of them into the air, and the rest 
would have taken to their heels." His conscious 
power found expression in a letter to the king, ofifer- 
ing to save his reeling throne, and command the 
troops which should quiet the insurgents. But 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 25 

no reply was made to the unknown writer. Seven 
months later, the monarch's head rolled upon the 
guillotine in front of his palace, amid the roll of drums, 
and the frantic cry of myriads, " Vive la Eepublique I" 
There is the liability among the common people to 
impulsive, fruitless, and even disastrous outbreaks of 
feeling, just in proportion as there is a want of intel- 
lectual culture combined with a fixed and lively 
sense of moral obligation. Enthusiasm is a natural 
element of the soul, and healthful, if there be these 
guiding elements of power. And there is no evidence 
that an excitement, which rocks a nation, is injurious, 
unless it appear without the vitality of truth and un- 
controlled by the mandate of reason, and the acknowl- 
edged principles of religious .responsibility. The 
American Kevolution was a sublime illustration of 
this*iaw of mind, and Washington the individual rep- 
resentative of the balance of powers — the mental and 
moral harmony — which is so rare among even great 
men. His entire being obeyed the established laws 
designed to govern it, with the beautiful uniformity 
with which the tides ebb and flow, under the attract- 
ive force of the moon. His patriotic fervor and sleep- 
less energies from his boyhood, were always within 
the confiiies of sober reason, and enlightened conscience. 
The French revolutionists were fatally deficient in both 
the safeguards of a popular movement; and Bona- 
parte, intellectually vastly superior to Washington, 
with a majestic self-reliance, by early education and 
national character was made of different mold. Id 



26 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BOMAPARTE. 

the one, self was merged in the highest good of the peo- 
ple ; in the other, self maintained its supremacy through 
all the noblest plans and fiercest battles for France. 

At this awakening period, he regarded the populace 
as of little worth, unfit for freedom, and himself as the 
stern disciplinarian, who could teach them subjection, 
and gathering into his hands the reins of authority, 
cover the flag of his country, and his own ample brow 
with glory. 

He revisited Corsica. General Paoli, whose residence, 
since the last ineffectual struggle of the island for free- 
dom, had been in England, was reanimated with hope 
when the wheels of revolution began to roll ; and 
after a flattering welcome in Paris, was appointed the 
governor of his people. He soon discovered the rapid 
developmejit of licentious liberty and lawlessness in 
France, and declared his aversion to the demoniac 
spirit and principles of the Jacobins. He came under 
the anathema of the National Assembly, and a detach- 
ment of troops under the command of La Combe, 
Michel, and Salicetti, sailed for Corsica, to remove 
him from ofiice. Napoleon, who had been on furlough 
for several months under the maternal roof, was 
f^uietly enjoying his attic, which he had furnished for 
solitary study, when the landing of the invading force 
startled the island from the repose of Paoli's peaceful 
reign, to the wild commotion of civil war. He refused 
the Italian's repeated and complimentary proposals to 
join his standard and strike for independence, and 
offered his aid to Salicetti. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 27 

But liis unreserved hatred of the Jacobin excesses 
exposed him to the suspicion and dishke of that officer, 
who seems to have been of the Machiavelhan school, 
and Napoleon was arrested, taken to Paris, and tri- 
umphantly acquitted. Meanwhile, instigated by the 
venerable chief Paoli, the peojjle declared against the 
sanguinary republic. Ajaccio was the only town that 
had refused, at the command of Paoli, to lower the tri- 
color. Paoli and his followers, in 1793, marched on 
Ajaccio ; the three Bonapaile brothers were absent at 
this critical time ; but the heroic Letitia was fully 
equal to the task of providing for the safety of herself 
and children. She dispatched messengers to Joseph 
and Napoleon by sea and land ; and gave notice that 
they would soon arrive in the port with the represen- 
tatives of the people. She thus succeeded in paralyz- 
ing the partisans of Paoli in the town. 

While waiting for the French fleet, Signora Letitia 
was on the point of falling into the hands of her ene- 
mies. Eoused suddenly at midnight, she found her 
chamber filled with armed mountaineers. She at first 
thought herself surprised by the partisans of Paoli: 
but by the light of a torch she saw the countenance 
of the chief, and felt re-assured. It was Costa of Bas- 
telica, the most devoted of the partisans of France. 
" Quick, make haste, Signora Letitia," he exclaimed ; 
" Paoli's men are close on us. There is not a moment 
to lose ; but I am here with my men. We will serve 
you or perish." 

Bastelica, one of the most populous village? of 



28 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Corsica lies at the foot of Monte d' Oro. Its inhabit- 
ants are renowned for their courage and loyalty. One 
of the villagers had encountered a numerous body of 
tho followers of Paoli descending on Ajaccio. He 
had learned that this troop had orders to take all the 
Bonaparte family, dead or alive. He returned to the 
village and roused their friends, who to the number 
of three hundred, armed, and preceded their enemies 
by a forced march to Ajaccio. Signora Letitia and 
her children rose from their beds, and in the center of 
the column left the town in silence, the inhabitants 
Deing still asleep. They penetrated the deepest recesses 
of the mountains, and at daybreak halted in a forest 
in sight of the sea. Several times the fugitives heard, 
from their encampment, the troops of the enemy in the 
neighboring valley, but they escaped the risk of an en- 
counter. The same day the flames rising in dense 
columns from the town, attracted attention. " That 
is your house now burning," said one of her friends to 
Letitia. " Ah ! never mind," she replied, " we will 
build it up again much better. Vive la France P^ After 
tvKO nights' march, the fugitives descried a French 
frigate. Letitia took leave of her brave defenders, and 
joined Joseph and Napoleon, who were on board the 
vessel at Calvi with tho French deputies who had been 
sent on a mission to Corsica. The frigate turned her 
prow toward Marseilles, where she landed the family 
of exiles, destitute of resources, but in health and full 
of courage. 

The Kevolution was now " glutting the public with 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 29 

seas of blood." The murder of the king had aroused 
the monarchs of Europe in defense of royal honor, and 
united them in the common cause of hostility to the 
Eepublican movement. In France herself, there had 
come a reaction, and Marseilles led in the rebellion 
against the Jacobins ; Lyons and other cities followed. 
At Toulon, whose citizens for the most part sympa- 
thized with the monarchists, were gathered many 
thousands of fugitives to find protection in the strong- 
hold of disaffection, under the expected shadow of the 
British and Spanish fleets, riding outside of the har- 
bor. The invitation to garrison the city was imme- 
diately accepted, and the twenty-five ships of the line 
with nearly as many frigates, entered the bay, and pre- 
pared, with the munitions of war on board, to fortify 
the town. This was no timid show of opposition to 
the leaders of the Kevolution, and startled amid the 
madness of epidemic terror and conflicting passions, 
they sent forward two armies, to besiege and capture 
Toulon. Cartaux, a self-conceited ofiicer, who ex- 
changed the painter's easel for the sword, commanded 
the expedition. , 

Accompanying the regular force, were prominent 
men, among whom was the younger Robespierre, sent 
out to watch the movements of the army and report to 
the central government. 

These representatives of the people only embarrassed 
the inefficient commander, and after protracted delay 
and repeated disasters, which consumed three months, 
Napoleon, with the commission to assume the com- 



80 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

mand of the artillery, arrived on the field of action. 
Whether any other influence than his general charac- 
ter as cadet, and brief experience in the regiment Le 
F^re, had set aside objection on the ground of his 
youth, and secured the promotion, is unknown. He 
saw at a glance the causes of failure. The batteries 
were too remote for more than a partial effect, and the 
whole manoeuvering without precision, and concentra- 
tion of force npon the undisturbed ranks of the enemy. 
The allies had strengthened the fortress called Little 
Gibraltar, the main defense of the harbor and town. 
It received the name from its supposed impregnability. 
Carteatix looked with jealous contempt upon the 
Corsican, and shining in the profusion of official 
decorations, gave him to understand that he was not 
needed, but might share in the glory of the enter- 
prise. The vain chief was superseded by Doppet, a 
physician, and greater coward than himself. Next 
came General Dugomraier, a man of energy and intelli- 
gence, who entered at once into Napoleon's compre- 
hensive and decisive plans. Subordinate officers were 
chosen by Bonaparte, and his train, of two hundred 
guns, prepared for assault. His design was simple 
and perfect in outline. To the interference of the 
deputies, on espionage, who suggested an improvement, 
he replied, "Do you attend to your duty as National 
Commissioners, and I will answer for mine with my 
head." His eye was on Little Gibraltar, the possession 
of whose promontory, he assured the general-iu-chief, 
would give them the sweeping fire of the harbor, and 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 31 

compel the naval force to retire. A few weeks earlier 
the stronghold would have been taken with easy 
conquest. But now it frowned upon them with solid 
walls, and lines of silent cannon, behind which were 
brave men from the invading armies, confident of 
victory. At one extremity of the town was tiie small 
fort Malbosquet, in a plantation of olives, behind 
which Bonaparte, unobserved by the enemy, erected a 
battery, from which he determined to open a fire, to 
divert attention from the grand assault. With sleep- 
less energy, snatching a short repose at night, wrapped 
in his cloak beside his guns, he multiplied batteries 
toward the fortress. One day during the progress of 
the siege, the deputies performing their accustomed 
survey of the works, discovered the battery near Mal- 
bosquet, and when told it had been ready for action 
eight days, ordered an immediate cannonade. It had 
not entered their minds, that a prospective and not a 
present use, was the reason for inactioa The English 
made an effective onset, and spiked the guns. Napo- 
leon hastened to the scene of conflict. " On his arrival 
on the eminence behind, he perceived a long, deep 
ditch, fringed with brambles and willows, which he 
thought might be turned to advantage. He caused a 
regiment of foot to creep along the ditch, which they 
did without being discovered, until they were close 
upon the enemy. General O'Hara, the English com- 
mander, mistook them when they appeared, for some 
of his own allies, and rushing out to give them some 
orders, was wounded and made prisoner. The En 



32 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

glish. were dispirited when they lost their general ; they 
retreated ; and the French were at liberty to set about 
the repair of their battery. In this affair much blood 
was shed, Napoleon himself received a bayonet- 
thrust in the thigh, and fell into the arms of Muiron, 
who carried him off the field. Such was the com- 
mencement of their brotherly friendship." 

It was after this slaughter, that Napoleon is said to 
have remarked to Louis, his brother, who visited him 
in camp, " All these men have been needlessly sacri- 
ficed. Had intelligence commanded here, none of 
these lives need have been lost. Learn from this how 
indispensable it is that those should possess knowledge 
who aspire to assume command over others." While 
constructing a battery under the fire of the allies, he 
had a dispatch to prepare, and called for a soldier who 
could write. A youthful sergeant sprang out of the 
ranks and leaning upon the breast- works, wrote at the 
dictation of Napoleon. As he made the last stroke 
of the pen, a ball struck the ground so near, the dust 
fell in a cloud upon him and the paper. With a laugh, 
he exclaimed, " Good, this time we shall do without 
sand." This pleasantry indicating the greatest cool- 
ness and self-command arrested the attention of Napo- 
leon. The amanuensis was Junot, soon afterward 
promoted to command, and subsequently Duke of 
Abrautes ; and who profanely said, " I love Napoleon 
as my Grod. To him I am indebted for all that I 
am." 

At another time a cavalcade of carriages arrived 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 83 

at Toulon, bringing more than fifty men, dressed in 
flaunting uniform, who desired an interview with the 
general. When admitted to his presence, one of the 
company presented this address: "Citizen-general, we 
come from Paris. The patriots are indignant at your 
inactivity and delay. The soil of the republic has 
been violated. She trembles to think that the insult is 
still unavenged. She asks why is Toulon not taken? 
Why is the English fleet not yet destroyed ? In her 
indignation she has appealed to her brave sons. We 
have obeyed her summons, and burn with impatience 
to fulfill her expectations. We are volunteer gunners 
from Paris. Furnish us with arms. To-morrow we 
will march against the enemy." 

Napoleon aside, said to Dugommier, " Turn those 
gentlemen over to me, I will take care of them I" 

lie gave them the control of a park of artillery 
near the sea-shore, and bade them sink an English 
frigate whose swarming decks lay within range of the 
guns. Suddenly a broadside came like a hail-storm 
about their heads. The recruits fled, and trouble with 
them was over. 

Then came the decisive day; the 19th of December, 

1793, when the general assault was ordered ; and the 

terrific conflict opened. Napoleon, in accordance witb 

his original tactics, poured a storm of shells on different 

points of the fortress, to confuse the enemy, while 

they fell incessantly also upon the devoted city. In 

an astonishingly brief time, eight thousand bombshells 

had exploded in the enemy's works, and laid them in 

3* 



34 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

a lieap of ruins. The soldiers rushed through the 
storm of rain and fire into the embrasures, and cut 
down the garrison with the sword. The streets oi 
Toulon ran blood, when the tricolor waved on the 
shattered ramparts, and Napoleon said to General 
Dugommier, "Go and sleep. We have taken Toulon." 
It was taken, but with carnage, through which the 
name of Bonaparte rose toward the zenith of that 
glory which flooded a hundred battle-fields, of which 
Toulon was the sanguinary sample. 

The blow was struck which decided the conflict; 
but conflagration and slaughter continued. Lord Howe, 
the English commander, saw that the city must follow 
the surrender of the fortress, and prepared to abandon 
it to the foe. When the inhabitants beheld the long 
processions of the sick and wounded moving toward 
the ships, they knew their doom was sealed. The 
vessels which could not be employed with safety, were 
collected and a fire-ship sent among them. Beneath 
the larid flames of their burning, the explosion of 
shells and magazines, and the shrieks of the dying, 
whose homes were pierced by the ceaseless cannonade, 
twenty thousand of the royalists gathered on the shore 
imploring deliverance from the exasperated enemy. 

The fleet at length moved out of harbor, and the Re- 
publicans rushed into Toulon. A double vengeance 
burned in their bosoms ; rage because of the rebellion 
against Jacobin reign, and revenge for having invited 
a foreign alliance to strengthen and shield their revolt. 
A hundred and fifty poor working men were sum- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 35 

iiioned together under the impression that they were 
to be employed in repairing the demolished forts, when 
a volley of musketry cut them down. A wealthy old 
merchant was executed to obtain his millions. For 
these excesses, neither Dugommier nor Napoleon were 
responsible. Their authority was in vain, while the 
madness of vengeance and lust ruled the hour. By 
this victory insurrection was quelled, and the control 
of the army secured. 

Bonaparte, whose agency in the achievement was 
concealed as far as j^ossible by the jealous representa- 
tives of the people, made an impression that reached 
the government; and he was appointed to survey and 
put in order of defense the entire coast of France, 
lying on the Mediterranean sea. With characteristic 
energy he accomplished in a few weeks his responsible 
and extensive work, and immediately joined the army 
at Nice, with an additional promotion to the post of 
chief of battalion. He infused his enthusiasm and 
self-reliance into the army of Italy, and soon General 
Dumerbion with Massena and Napoleon were leading 
the troops to conquest. 

Possession of the maritime Alps was gained, and the 
way prepared for advancing into Italy. Still was the 
genius of Napoleon kept in comparative obscurity by 
the silence of his superior officers, who assumed the 
honors of victory. He was superseded in command, 
and soon after, July 28, 1794, arrested upon the 
chaige of interest in measures hostile to the policy 
of the dominant party, which had taken the reins of 



36 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 

government from the bloody hands of that prince of 
homicides, Eobespierre. 

Albitti and Salicetti, who succeeded the terrorists 
as representatives of the people, influenced by the mis- 
representations of his enemies, or jealous of the young 
Corsican, whose rapid advancement astonished them, 
ordered the arrest. Had it occurred a few weeks 
earlier, it would doubtless have added him to the 
myriads dispatched by the guillotine. He made his 
statement, affirming his innocence, and was immediate- 
ly released from confinement. The officer who opened 
his prison door, found him intensely engaged with the 
map of Lombardy, evidently conscious of work yet to 
do on the pictured plains, whence came to his fancy's 
ear the tramp of moving battalions. The prejudice 
attending this unjust incarcei'ation, was manifest in the 
attempt to change his rank in the army ; and he in- 
dignantly resigned his position, and returned to the 
family residence in Marseilles. The resources of the 
Bonapartes were small, and destitution cast its shadows 
about their home. But while there, he again fell in 
love. Eugenie Desirde Clery, an attractive and ac- 
complished young lady, a merchant's daughter, be- 
came the object of reciprocated affection. But circum- 
stances did not permit him to marry, and the affair 
was broken off. She subsequently b came the wife 
of Bernadotte, and was the queen of Sweden ; her 
sister married Joseph, the brother of Napoleon. 

The youthful soldier seems to have been honora,bIe 
in all matters of friendship, and without the vices of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 37 

the times. He had raised his aspirations above the 
effeminate pleasures of sensual indulgence, and the 
destructive vortex of atheistical debauchery. 

After a brief enjoyment of his attachment, he turned 
away from the seclusion of his destitute dwelling, and 
went to Paris to seek employment. Eeferring to these 
months of inactivity, in the last years of his life, he 
gives us a glimpse of the darkness which eclipsed the 
rising sun of his glory, and well-nigh quenched its 
light : 

"I was at this period, on one occasion, suffering 
from that extreme depression of spirit which suspends 
the faculties of the brain, and renders life a burden 
too heavy to be borne. I had just received a letter 
from my mother revealing to me the utter destitution 
into which she was plunged. She had been cod»- 
pelled to flee from the war with which Corsica was 
desolated, and was then at Marseilles, with no means 
of subsistence, and having naught but her heroic 
virtues to defend the honor of her daughters against 
the misery and corruption of all kinds existing in the 
manners of the epoch of social chaos. I also, deprived 
of my salary, and with exhausted resources, had but 
one single dollar in my pocket. Urged by animal in- 
stinct to escape from prospects so gloomy, and from 
sorrows so unendurable, I wandered along the banks 
of the river, feeling that it was unmanly to commit 
suicide, and yet unable to resist the temptation to do 
so. In a few more moments I should have thrown 
myself into the water, when J ran against an individ- 



38 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

ual dressed like a simple mechanic, who, recognizing 
me, threw himself upon my neck, and cried, 'Is it 
you, Napoleon ? How glad I am to see you again.' 
It was Ddmasis, an old friend and former comrade of 
mine in the artillery regiment. He had emigrated, 
and afterward had returned to France in disguise, to 
see his aged mother. He was about to leave me, when 
stopping, he exclaimed, ' But what is the matter, Na- 
poleon ? You do not listen to me ! You do not seem 
glad to see me. What misfortune threatens you? 
You look to me like a madman about to kill himself.' 
This direct appeal to the feelings which had seized 
upon me, produced such an effect upon my mind, that 
without hesitation I revealed to him every thing. ' Is 
that all?' said he, unbuttoning his coarse waistcoat 
and detaching a belt which he placed in my hands. 
' Here are six thousand dollars in gold, which I can 
spare without any inconvenience. Take them and 
relieve your mother.' I can not to this day explain 
how I could have been willing to receive the money, 
but I seized the gold as by a convulsive movement, 
and ran to send it to my distressed mother." 

The deed was scarcely done before Napoleon re- 
pented, and tried to find the generous Dcmasis, but 
in vain. He was afterward repaid with a royal gift 
of sixty thousand dollars, and an office worth six 
thousand more. 

Napoleon was disappointed in his efforts to obtain 
honorable activity. "When Aubry, the president of 
the military committee, objected to his youth, when 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONArARTE. 39 

his request for an appointment was presented, Na- 
poleon replied, " Presence in the field of battle might 
be reckoned in place of years." The flash of inde- 
pendence was resented as an insult, and increased the 
difficulties between him and his desired position in the 
army. 

A few of his letters \v-ritten about this time, will 
possess great interest, because they are the confidential 
expressions of his experience and plans. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

June 25, 1195. 

" I will execute your wife's commissions immediate- 
ly. Desiree asks me for your portrait ; I am going to 
have it painted ; you will give it to her if she still 
wishes for it ; if not, keep it for' yourself. In what- 
ever circumstances you may be placed by fortune, you 
know well, my friend, that you can not have a better 
or a dearer friend than myself, or one who wishes more 
sincerely for your happiness. Life is a flimsy dream, 
soon to be over. If you are going away, and you 
think that it may be for some time, send me your 
portrait ; we have lived together for so many years, 
so closely united, that our hearts have become one, 
and you know best how entirely mine belongs to you. 
While I write these lines I feel an emotion which I 
have seldom experienced. I fear it will be long be- 
fore we see each other again, and I can write no 
more." 

We have here evidences of deep despondency, and 



40 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

warm affections toward his family friends. In tlio 
next communication quoted, the scene is changed. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Paris, July 25, 1795. 

" I am appointed General in the Army of the "West ; 
but my illness keeps me here. I expect more detailed 
accounts from you. I suppose that you purposely 
avoid telling me any thing of Ddsiree ; I do not know 
■whether she is still alive. 

" All goes on well here. In the south alone there 
has been a little disturbance, got up by the young 
people ; it is mere childish folly. 

" On the 15th the Committee of Public Safety is to be 
partially renewed ; I hope that they will choose good 
people. Eeinforcements are being sent to the Army 
of Italy ; would you like me to go there ? 

" Your letters are very dry : you are so prudent and 
laconic that you tell me nothing. When will you 
return ? I do not think that your affairs need keep 
you away beyond the month of Thermidor. 

" It is not certain that Lanjuinais' motion will pass ; 
it is possible that no change may be made with respect 
to the retrospective effect. It would be committing 
the same fault in principle. I sent to you, at the time, 
Lanjuinais' report.* Good-by, my dear friend ; 
health, gayet}'-, happiness, and pleasure to you." 

* The motion and the report of Lanjuinais were in favor of the re- 
peal of the law of the iHh l>i7(";sc, which applied the rule of equal 
partition to all successions which had occurred since the 14th July, 
J7S9, without regard to any interraediato acta or settlements. Lan- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 41 

Soon after, he closed a letter with these words of 
lively hope, and kindling ambition for distinction : 

"Good- by, my dear friend; be cantious as to the 
future, and satisfied with the present ; be gay, and 
learn to amuse yourself. As for me I am happy. I 
only want to find myself on the battle-field ; a soldier 
must either win laurels or perish gloriously." 

Again he writes, "Fesch seems to wish to return 
to Corsica after the peace ; he is always the same, liv- 
ing in the future, sending me letters of six pages 
about some subtlety, no broader than a needle's point ; 
the present no more to him than the past, the future 
is every thing. As for me, little attached to life, con- 
templating it without much solicitude, constantly in 
the state of mind in which one is on the day before 
battle, feeling that, while death is always amongst us 
to put an end to all, anxiety is folly — every thing joins 
to make me defy fortune and fate ; in time I shall not 
get out of the way when a carriage comes. I some- 
times wonder at my own state of mind. It is the re- 
sult of what I have seen, and what I have risked." 

Sadness will rest upon the contemplative reader, in 
view of the total absence of religious feeling ; that fine 
sense of moral responsibility, which subdues within the 
limits of pure and elevated action, the loftiest intellect, 
and invests the life and the death of the humblest in- 
dividual with solemn interest. He afterward alludes 

juinais denounced the injustice of this retrospective legislation. His 
report here alluded to ia to be found in the Monileur of the 1th 
August, 1795. 



42 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

to the expedition, respecting which he is said to 
have remarked jestingly to a friend, " How singular it 
would be if a little Corsican officer were to become 
king of Jerusalem." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Paris, August 20, 1795. 

■" I am attached for the present to the topographical 
board of the Committee of Public Safety for the 
direction of the armies ; I replace Carnot. If I ask 
for it, I can be sent to Turkey as general of artillery, 
commissioned by the Government to organize the 
Grand Seignior's artillery, with a good salary and a 
very flattering diplomatic title. I would have you 
appointed consul, and Villeneuve* accompany me as 
engineer ; you say that Danthoine is there already ; 
therefore, before a month is over I should arrive in 
Genoa ; we should go together to Leghorn, where we 
should embark : considering all this, will you purchase 
an estate ? 

"We are quiet here, but perhaps storms may be 
brewing ; the primary assemblies will meet in a few 
days. I shall take with me five or six officers ; I will 
write to you more in detail to-morrow. 

" Vado will soon be retaken. 

" The resolutions of the Committee of Public Safety 
appointing me director of the armies, and of the plans 
of the campaign, have been so flattering to me, that I 

* M. Villeneuve was Postmaster-General andor the Empire, and 
brother-in-law to King Joseph, having married one of the demoiseJlea 
Clery. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 48 

fear that thej will not let me go to Turkey; we shall 
see. I am to look at a villa to-day. I embrace you. 
Continue to write to me as if I were going to Turkey." 

The abandonment of a foreign field of action, with 
a hint at the spell which love threw over his restless 
heart, are given in the subjoined letter : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH, 

"Paris, September 5, 1795. 

" The Committee have decided that it is impossible 
for me to leave France during the war. I am to be 
re- appointed to the artillery, and I shall probably con- 
tinue to attend the Committee. The elections and the 
primary assemblies take place on the day after to- 
morrow : the peace with Hesse-Cassel is concluded. 

" National property and emigrants' estates are not 
dear, but those belonging to individuals go for extrav- 
agant prices. 

'* K I stay here it is possible that I may be fool 
enough to marry ; I wish for a few words from you on 
the subject. Perhaps it would be well to speak to 
Eugenie's brother. Let me know the result, and all 
shall be settled. 

" Chauvet, who is going to Nice in ten days, will take 
you the books which you asked for. 

" The celebrated Bishop of Autun* and General 
Montesquieu are allowed to return; they are struck 
out of the list of emigrants." 

* Talleyrand. 



44 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Bonaparte's career up to this time, had prepared him 
for his mission. In Corsica, he was cradled in the 
midst of political agitation ; and hostile from his boj- 
'"nood to the subjugation of the island, he became 
meditative and reserved, nourishing that self-reliance 
and independence of character, which made hini at 
Brienne a sullen solitaire, and target of raillery to his 
fellow-students. While this strengthened his sublime 
decision, and quickened his keen observation of human 
nature, it gave him that appearance of severity and 
contempt for man, which distinguished his manner 
when mingling with promiscuous soci^ety. 

lie was at this date, twenty -six. The dark com- 
plexion of early years had worn off under the mild sky 
of France ; but a contagious disease he had taken at 
Toulon, from a soldier, and which penetrated his sys- 
tem with malignant power, so reduced his frame that 
his flashing eye seemed set in the sockets of a skeleton. 
He was soon to be an actor in the drama of European 
revolutions. 

The Convention had lost favor with the multitude, 
and a new step was demanded in the march of revolu- 
tion. A constitution was formed, securing a Directory 
of five, the executive ; a Council of five hundred, the 
House of Commons; and the Council of Ancients, 
answering to the English Peers. The Convention, un- 
willing to part with authority, made it a condition of 
acceptance, that the second division should include 
two thirds of their members. This excited the Paris- 
ians, especially the superior classes, who were indig- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 45 

nant because it disclosed an arbitrary and selfish tenac- 
ity of power. The city was divided into ninety-six 
sections or wards, forty-eight of which were in favor 
of the constitution, and the other half rejected it, in- 
cluding the Royalists and Jacobins. The extremes thus 
made common cause against the new order of things. 

With these insurrectionary sections, the National 
Guard united, and the forces prepared to attack the 
Tuilleries, and compel the assembly to meet the wishes 
of the majority, and change their measures. With five 
hundred regular troops, and the remnant of Robes- 
pierre's ruffian army, the Convention prepared to resist 
the onset. Menou assumed the commaftd, and failed 
to fill the perilous position. While his indecision 
alarmed the body still in session, Barras exclaimed, as 
if a sudden revelation had aroused him, "T have the 
man whoii you want: it is a little Corsican officer, 
who will 'not stand upon ceremony y This expression 
determine^l the destiny of Napoleon. He was soon in 
command, and the 13th Vendemaire (October 5th), 
planted his cannon at the cross-streets and bridges, 
sweeping with his hail of death the advancing columns 
of the insurgents, till the pavements were covered with 
the slain, and the flame of rebellion extinguished in 
blood. The new order of things was established, and 
Barras, the presiding spirit, obtained for Bonaparte the 
generalship of the Army of the Interior, and the office 
of commandant of Paris. He was now no longer a 
unit among the many, but the military chieftain of a 
kinsrdom. 



46 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 

lie thus communicates the intelligence to Joseph: 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, night of the 13-14 Venddmaire, 2 in 
the morning [October 6], 1796. 

"At last all is over. My first impulse is to think of 
you, and to tell you my news. The royalists, organ- 
ized in their sections, became every day more insolent. 
The Convention ordered the section Lepelletier to be 
disarmed. It repulsed the troops. Menou, who was 
in command, is said to have betrayed us. He was 
instantly superseded. The Convention appointed Bar- 
ras to command the military force; the committees 
appointed me second in command. We made our dis- 
positions ; the enemy marched to attack us in the 
Tuilleries. We killed many of them ; they killed 
thirty of our men, and wounded sixty. We have dis- 
arnied the sections, and all is quiet. As usual, I was 
not wounded. 

"P. S. Fortune favors me. My respects to Eugenie 
and to Julie." 

Charged with the work of disarming the conquered 
citizens, he obtained the sword of the Viscount De 
Beauharnais, a blade its moldering possessor never 
dishonored. Eugene, in his boyish enthusiasm, re- 
solved to have the weapon wielded by a father he loved 
and lamented. Presenting himself to Napoleon he 
made his request — the general was struck with his 
earnestness and manly bearing, and restored the relic, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 47 

which he bore away bathed with tears. The next 
day Josephine called at the commandant's head-quar- 
ters, to thank him in person for his kindness. This 
increased the interest Napoleon had entertained for 
her since through the friendship of Barras he formed 
her acquaintance in the social circles of Paris. It is 
related that before he indulged serious intentions of 
marrying Madame Beauharnais, he offered himself to 
Madame De Permon, an old family friend, and an in- 
teresting widow, but was rejected. However this may 
be, he was deeply smitten with the charms of the 
lovely woman, whose son had given assurance of her 
excellent qualities in his own admirable behavior. 
The increasing attachment was every way favorable to 
Napoleon's plans and advancement, but a subject of 
painful solicitude to her, which is well expressed in a 
letter of some length, affording also further insight into 
a heart cultivated no less than her genius : 

"My dear friend, I am urged to marry again: my 
friends counsel the measure, my aunt almost lays her 
injunctions to the same effect, and my children entreat 
my compliance. Why are you not here to give me 
your advice in this important conjuncture ? to persuade 
me that I ought to consent to a union which must put 
an end to the irksomeness of my present position? 
Your friendship, in which T have already experienced 
so much to praise, would render you clear-sighted for 
my interests ; and I should decide without hesitation 
as soon as you had spoken. You have met General 
Bonaparte in my house. Well ! — he it is who would 



48 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

supply a father's place to the orphans of Alexander de 
Beauharnais, and a husband's to his widow. 

" 'Do you love him?' you will ask. Not exactly. 
'You then dislike him?' Not quite so bad; but I 
find myself in that state of indifference which is any 
thing but agreeable, and which to devotees in religion 
gives more trouble than all their other peccadilloes. 
Love, being a species of worship, also requires that one 
feel very differently from all this ; and hence the need 
I have of your advice, which might fix the perpetual 
irresolution of my feeble character. To assume a de- 
termination has ever appeared fatiguing to my Creole 
supineness, which finds it infinitely more convenient 
to follow the will of others. 

" I admire the general's courage, the extent of his 
information — for on all subjects he talks equally well 
, — and the quickness of his judgment, which enables 
him to seize the thoughts of others almost before they 
are expressed ; but, I confess it, I shrink from the 
despotism he seems desirous of exercising over all who 
approach him. His searching glance has something 
singular and inexplicable, which imposes even on our 
Directors: judge if it may not intimidate a woman ! 
Even, what ought to please me, the force of a passion, 
described with an energy that leaves not a doubt of his 
sincerity, is precisely the cause which arrests the con- 
sent lam often on the point of pronouncing. 

" Being now past the heyday of youth, can I hope 
long to preserve that ardor of attachment which, in 
the general resembles a fit of delirium? If, after our 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 49 

union, he should cease to love me, will he not reproach 
me with wb^t he will have sacrificed for my sake? — 
will he not regret a more brilliant marriage which he 
might have contracted ? What shall I then reply ? — 
what shall I do ? I shall weep. Excellent resource I 
vou will say. Good heavens ! I know that all this 
can serve no end ; but it has ever been thus ; tears are 
the only resources left me when this poor heart, so 
easily chilled, has suffered. Write quickly, and do 
not fear to scold me, should you judge that I am 
wrong. You know that whatever comes from your 
pen will be taken in good part. 

" Barras gives assurance, that if I marry the general, 
he will so contrive as to have him- appointed to the 
command of the army of Italy. Yesterday, Bonaparte, 
speaking of this favor, which already excites mur- 
muring among his fellow-soldiers, though it be as yet 
only a promise, said to me, * Think they then, I have 
need of their protection to arrive at power ? Egregious 
mistake ! They will all be but too happy one day 
should I condescend to grant them mine. My sword 
is by my side, and with it I will go far.' 

" What say you to this security of success ? Is it not 
a proof of confidence springing from an excess of 
vanity? A general of brigade protect the heads of 
government I That, truly, is an event highly proba- 
ble ! I know not how it is, but sometimes this way- 
wardness gains upon me to such a degree, that almost 
I believe possible whatever this singular man may 
take it into his head to attempt ; and with his im- 



5(X LIFE OF NAPOLEO^ BONAPAETE. 

agination, wlio can calculate what he will not under- 
take? 

" Here, we all regret you and console ourselves for 
your pi'olonged absence only by thinking of you every 
minute, and by endeavoring to follow you step by step 
through the beautiful country you are now traversing. 
Were I sure of meeting you in Italy, I would get mar- 
ried to-morrow, upon condition of following the gen- 
eral ; but we might perhaps cross each other on the 
route; thus I deem it more prudent to wait for your 
reply before taking my determination. Speed, then, 
your answer — and your return still more. 

"Madame Tallien gives me in commission to tell 
you, that she loves you tenderly. She is. always 
beautiful and good ; employing her immense influence 
only to obtain pardon for the unfortunate who address 
themselves to her ; and adding to her acquiescence an 
air of satisfaction, which gives her the appearance of 
being the person obliged. Her friendship for me is 
ingenuous and affectionate. I assure you that the love 
I bear toward her resembles my affection for you. 
This will give you an idea of the attachment I feel for 
her. Hortense becomes more and more amiable ; her 
charming figure develops itself: and I should have 
fitting occasion, if so inclined, to make troublesome 
reflections upon villainous Time, which merely adorns 
one at the expense of another. Happily, I have got 
quite a different crotchet in my head at present, and 
skip all dismals in order to occupy my thoughts solely 
with a future which promises to be happy, since we 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 51 

sliall soon be re-united, never again to be separated. 
Were it not for this maniage, which puts me out, I 
should, despite of all, be gay ; but while it remains to 
be disposed of, 1 shall torment myself; once concluded, 
come what may^ I shall be resigned, I am habituated 
to suffering ; and if destined to fresh sorrows, I think 
I can endure them, provided my children, my aunt, 
and you were spared me. We have agreed to cut short 
the conclusions of our letters, so adieu, my friend." 

It is very apparent, tliat Josephine was more deeply 
interested in her admirer than she would have her 
friend believe ; and asking counsel was only declaring 
both her passion and intention to marry. The months 
departed, and Napoleon, though environed with duties 
whicb attended his appointment, retired at evening to 
the mansion of Madame Beauharnais, to hear the mel- 
ody of her voice, and enjoy an interlude of romantic 
pleasure, amid the stormy scenes that opened before 
his feet the path of glory. With a few select friends^ 
among whom Madame Tallien was conspicuous, there 
were frequent meetings of the parties, and brilliant 
entertainments, which extended the friendship and in- 
fluence of the commander-in-chief, among the very 
class the most available in carrying forward his am- 
bitious schemes, already towering above Alpine sum- 
mits, and embracing thrones which had withstood the 
flow of centuries. 

Josephine has left her testimony respecting the fine 
conversational powers of her lover — which is proof of 
liis ability in this department, whenever he chose to 



52 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

indulge the ahoMdon of wit and compliment in ttio 
society of women, for whom, it is well known, he en- 
tertained but a light opinion ; owing doubtless to the 
frivolous character and easy virtue of the majority of 
those he met in the gay society of the metropolis. 

The spring-time spread beauty again over the val- 
leys of unhappy France, while the tocsin of war fell 
on the eager ear of Napoleon. How the waving foliage 
nourished by the decaying dead, the bending sky, and 
the harmonies of nature filling it, mocked the mourn- 
ful dwellings and breaking hearts, whose trampled 
vineyards were a symbol of what madness had wrought, 
and an index of future desolation by the shock of 
contending armies! But Napoleon listened only to 
the ravishing tones of love, and the sweeter notes of 
fame's shrill trumpet ; for his pulse never beat so 
wildly with hope and enthusiasm before. 

He led Josephine to the altar according to revolu- 
tionary form, which was a simple presentation before 
the proper magistrate, March 9th, 1796. Barras and 
Tallien witnessed the ceremony, and signed with Le- 
marois, an aid-de-camp, and Calmelet, a lawyer, the 
act recorded in the state register of Paris. 

Twelve days later he bade adieu to his bride and 
was on his way to the plains of Italy — a parting that 
blemled in one tide of strong emotion, the affection of 
an'f^^ent, impetuous spirit, and the glowing desire to 
encircle ^iis brow with laurels, that 

" would burn 



And read his temples in return." 



I 



CHAPTER II. 

Napoleon is appointed to the chief command. — His youth. — Leaves 
Paris for Nice. — Visits his mother. — The contending armies. — The 
character of Napoleon. — ^His new tactics.— His address to the soldiers. 
— The objects of the campaign. — The route of passing the Alps. — The 
conflict. — The victory. — ^The pursuit of the Austrians. — Reaches 
Cherasco, near Turin. — Dictates terms of peace to the king of Sardinia. 
— Again addresses the army. — His knowledge of men. — Morals. — 
Crosses the Po. — Battle of Lodi. — Napoleon at Milan. — Letter to 
Joseph. — Treaty with the dukes of Parma and Modena. — Address to 
the army. — Jealousy of the Directory. — Napoleon pursues the Aus- 
triana — Insurrection in Lombardy. — Treaty with the Yatican.— 
Wurmzer appointed to the command. — The Austrians advance.— 
Battle of Lonato. — Napoleon's peril. — Incidents. — Letter to Joseph.— 
Castigliono. — Retreat of Wurmzer. — Mantua besieged. — Alvinzi sent 
into Italy. — The battles of Areola. — Alvinzi routed. — Battle of Rivoli. 
— Mantua surrenders. — Letter to Josephine. — ^Napoleon's success, 

A FORTNIGHT before his marriage, Napoleon was 
appointed coramander-in-chief of the army of Italy. 
The quiet in the capital, directed the attention of the 
government to the condition of the troops. The dis- 
sipated general, whose place had been given to Na- 
poleon, left the army, numbering fifty thousand men, 
destitute, and exposed to a powerful enemy. Cavalry 
and food were wanting ; clothing was iusafficicnt, and 
the very sinews of war were weakening every day, 
while the dangers were augmenting. Of the new 
general, Barras said to the Directory, " Advance this 



54 LIFE OF NAPOL"EON BONAPARTE. 

man, or he will advance himself without you." And 
when one of them remarked, " You are rather 3'oung 
to assume responsibilities so weighty, and to take com- 
mand of our veteran generals," he leplied, " In one 
year I shall either be old or dead." Three days after 
the marriage ceremonies, he hastened toward the head- 
quarters of his battalions. 

At Marseilles, he stopped to see his mother, for 
whom he always manifested a noble filial affection. 
It was a splendid summit of distinction for her son, 
who had passed the line of minority but five years 
before ; and we may believe that this interview and 
the adieu, were fraught with maternal tenderness and 
pride. The Corsican fugitives were already on the 
grand arena of European revolutions, to which the 
anxious eyes of the world were turning. A regicide 
people were forming institutions hostile to the peace 
and stability of surrounding thrones, and " the kings 
of the earth took counsel together" against the republic. 

There is nothing marvelous in the contest. France, 
without either political or moral elements of govern- 
ment and growth after the example of our own, 
awakened the fears of those who undoubtingly be- m 
lieved in the divine right of kings. Nor does the 
general view affect decisively the question of Na- 
poleon's motives and character, tried by the standard 
of a pure philanthropy^, patriotism, and Christian 
ethics. 

The letters already quoted, and the subsequent his- 
tory, will prove liim to have been ambitious in the 






LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 55 

highest degree of personal, family, and national glory. 
Gifted, generous in his impulses, and correct in morals, 
he identified himself with the destiny of France, with 
her, and through her to carve a way to the most daz- 
zling eminence of renown from which youthful or 
maturest footsteps ever sent down their echoes to ap- 
plauding millions. 

Such was Napoleon when he arrived at Nice. Earn 
pon, one of the officers, volunteered some words of 
counsel. He resented the impertinence with his own 
matchless expression of superiority, adding with spirit, 
" Gentlemen, the art of war is in its infancy. The 
time has passed in which enemies are mutuall}^ to ap- 
point the place of combat, advance, hat in hand, and 
say, ' Gentlemen^ will you have the goodness to jire ? 
We must cut the enemy in pieces, precipitate ourselves 
like a torrent upon their battalions, and grind them to 
powder. Experienced generals conduct the troops 
opposed to usl So much the better — so much the 
better. It is not their experience which will avail 
them against me. Mark my words, they will soon 
burn their books on tactics, and know not what to do. 
Yes, gentlemen I the first onset of the Italian army 
will give birth to a new epoch in military affairs. As 
for us, we must hurl ourselves on ihe foe like a 
thunderbolt, and smite like it. Disconcerted by our 
tactics, and not daring to put them into execution, 
they will fly before us, as the shades of night before 
the uprising sun." It was this sublimely bold utter- 
ance, which drew from Augcreau the remark, " We 



56 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

have here a man who will cut out some work for 
government, I think." 

His first address to the arm j was brief but effective, 
thrilhng upon their weary hearts like unearthly music. 
"Soldiers," said he, "you are hungry and naked ; the 
republic owes you much, but she has not the means 
to pay her debts. I am come to lead you into the 
most fertile plains the sun beholds. Eich provinces, 
opulent towns, a-ll shall be at your disposal. Soldiers ! 
with such a prospect before you, can you fail in 
courage and constancy ?" 

There was a wonderful breadth of thought — a com- 
prehensive insight into military affairs, in the tactics 
of this of&cer, which astonished the veterans in com- 
mand who surrounded him. Napoleon saw at a glance, 
that his troops with the cumberous, measured modes 
of warfare, to which the outnumbering, disciplined 
armies of Europe adhered, would have a faint pros- 
pect of great success. Abandoning all the embarrass- 
ing comforts of the campaign — depending for shelter 
and stores on the conquered territory ; his policy was 
to move down like the apparently lawless, and un- 
heralded tornado, upon his enemies. The plan was 
original, daring, and magnificent in outline and aim. 
He meant to make the most of a demoniac sj-stem, 
concerning which he said, "War is the science of bar- 
barians ; as he who has the heaviest battalions will 
conquer." 

" The objects of the approaching expedition were 
three : first, to compel the King of Sardinia, who had 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 57 

already lost Savoy and Nice, but still maintained a 
powerful army on the frontiers of Piedmont, to aban- 
don the alliance of Austria ; secondly, to compel Aus- 
tria, by a bold invasion of her rich Italian provinces, to 
make such exertions in that quarter as might weaken 
those armies which had so long hovered on the French 
frontier of the Ehine ; and, if possible, to stir up the 
Italian subjects of that crown to adopt the revolution- 
ary system and emancipate themselves forever from its 
yoke. The third object, though more distant, was not 
less important. The Directory had taken umbrage 
against the Koman Church, regarding it as the secret 
support of royalism in France ; and to reduce the Vati- 
can into insignificance, or at least force it to submission 
and quiescence, appeared indispensable to the internal 
tranquillity of the French nation." 

The Austrian General Beaulieu, anticipating the 
designs of Napoleon on Italy, arranged his immense 
force to cover Genoa, and guard the Alpine passes. 
He took a position at Voltri, ten miles from Genoa ; 
D'Argenteau was at Monte Notte, a summit further 
west ; while the Sardinian troops commanded by Colli, 
were stationed at Ceva, completing the right wing of 
the allied armies, and presenting a threatening barrier 
of disciplined soldiers, more formidable than the 
frowning Alps to the advance of the French. To op- 
pose and rout this overwhelming force. Napoleon 
must rely upon the untried power of his novel plan 
of attack, of which his enemy had no intimation. To 
cross the Alps, his design was also his own. Instead 

3* 



58 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

of attempting any of tlie usual paths over the fearful 
summits, he had decided to marchi along the sloj)e be- 
tween the precipitous ranges and the Mediterranean 
sea, where the Alps sink into the depression which 
divides them from the Apennines. Toward this 
point, both armies mustered their strength, and there 
the inferior, weakened regiments of the Directory, 
were to encounter the splendid columns of the Aus- 
trian commander. 

April 11th, 1796, through a pelting storm and the 
yielding soil, he moved with, incredible rapidity to- 
ward Monte ISTotte, the strong center of the entire 
army. When he gained the heights, he beheld before 
him the encampment and tlie valley, where soon the 
die would be cast ; his first great victory won, or his 
hopes quenched in blood. The pause was brief ; the 
order to fall on the foe was given, and the smoke of 
bloody conflict rolled upward from the plain. D'Ar- 
genteau, finding himself surrounded, was compelled 
to retreat, leaving three thousand dead and wounded 
on the field. The new method of attack was no 
longer an experiment; and Bonaparte was a con- 
queror, and the terror of Europe's select battalions. 

The Austrians fled to Dego ; the Sardinian wing 
fell back to Millesimo ; and D'Argenteau endeav- 
ored to rally his disheartened detachments, and form 
again in order of battle. The next, day, before the 
expected reinforcements from Lombardy could arrive 
to strengthen the allies, who hoped in their new posi 
tion to -save Milan and Turin, Napoleon marched 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 59- 

upon the Austriau line. Augereau was sent toward 
Millesimo, Massena to Dego, and Laharpc turned the 
left flank of the commander-in-chief Each did his 
work welL At Dego, where Beaulieu had intrenched 
himself, the Austrians were defeated, the general 
driven from his position, and three thousand prisoners 
taken. The Sardinians at MOlesimo surrendered, 
numbering fifteen hundred ; a disaster which reduced 
them to a wreck, and wiped out their name from the 
list of boastful allies. Napoleon now moved on like 
an Alpine avalanche toward Turin the capital of Sar- 
dinia. On the heights of Zeamolo, he beheld, as did 
the crusaders the city of David from encircling hills, 
the glorious prize for which he fought — the verdant 
river-veined and fertile plains of lovely Italy. His 
troops poured down, upon the promised land with de- 
light. At Ceva he met the foe, eight thousand strong, 
and after an indecisive conflict, overtook them again 
near the torrent Carsuglia ; where a desperate battle 
was fought, and the bridge crossed. Napoleon marched 
on to Cherasco, within ten miles of Tarin, where he 
encamped, to dictate the terms on w^hich the King 
could hold his throne, and the government in form 
and name continue. He demanded, before measures 
for an armistice were considered, the surrender of 
Coni, Tortona, and Alexandria, fortresses which bore 
the name of "the Keys of the Alps." When he dis- 
covered hesitation, he sternly added, " Listen to the 
laws I impose upon you in the name of my country, 
and obey, or to-morrow my batteries are erected, and 



60 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Turin is in flames." Thus all of consequence but 
Turin itself was in his hands, and an embassador on 
his way to Paris, to conclude the treaty witli the 
kingdom, leaving his way unobstructed to carry on- 
the Avar against Austria. In less than a montb tbe 
young Corsican had conquered in three grand battles, 
killed, wounded and captured twenty -five thousand men ; 
taken eighty guns, and twenty-one standards; and 
that too with an army inferior in numbers, and in all 
the appendages of the battle-field, and with compara- 
tively an insignificant loss of men, Never before was 
such dazzling and sanguinary conflict witnessed, and the 
wisdom of the wise in the science of human slaughter 
so utterly confounded. 

Prepared to move forward to his greater enterprise, 
he cast his eye upward to the majestic peaks that glit- 
tered in the sunlight, and exclaimed : " Hannibal 
forced the Alps, and we have turned them." He then 
addressed, with stirring eloquence, bis troops : 

" Hitherto you have been fighting for barren rocks, 
memorable for your valor, but useless to your coun- 
try ; but now your exploits equal those of the armies 
of Holland and the Ehine, You were utterly destitute, 
and you have supplied all your wants. You have 
gained battles without cannon, passed rivers without 
bridges, performed forced marches without shoes, 
bivouacked without strong liquors, and often without 
bread. None but republican phalanxes, soldiers of 
liberty, could have endured such things. Thanks for 
your perseverance! But, soldiers, you have done 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 61 

notliiug — for there remains much to do. Milan is not 
yet ours. The ashes of the conquerors of Tarquia 
are still trampled by the assassins of Basseville." 

Napoleon's consummate knowledge of human na- 
ture was visible in his every act. He knew how to 
reach the soldier's sympathy and inflame his enthusi- 
asm. His system of warfare, and his modest style ot 
announcing his successes, were all marked with the 
same profound insight of the secret of power over the 
minds of men. This marvelous quality of character 
he expressed, when he remarked : " My extreme 
youth when I took command of the army of Italy, 
rendered it necessary that I should evince great re- 
serve of manners, and the utmost severity of morals 
This was indispensable to enable me to sustain author- 
ity over men so greatly my superiors in age and 
experience. I pursued a line of conduct in the highest 
degree irreproachable and exemplar}'-. In spotless 
morality I was a Cato, and must have appeared such 
to all. I was a philosopher and a sage. My supremacy 
could be retained only by proving myself a better 
man than any other man in the army. Had I yielded 
to human weaknesses, I should have lost my power." 

While the motive revealed can not claim the name 
of virtue, the morality it secured shed luster upon his 
name. His position at this period in his history was 
sublime, and his fame the admiration of the world. 

The kingdom of Sardinia, comprised Nice, Savoy, 
Montferrat, and Piedmont ; of the latter Napoleon was 
now the undisputed master. He sent messages of 



62 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

afifection to Josephine, who in her unselfish devotion 
rejoiced more than himself, in every conquest of his 
battalions, and pressed on to overtake Beaulieu, who 
had retreated behind the Po. By artful manoeu- 
vring he made the Austrian general believe that he 
designed to cross the river at Yalenza, while under 
cover of night he marched, with unequaled rapidity, 
eighty miles down the stream in thirty-six hours, 
sweeping with him every boat upon its banks. On 
the 7th of May, he crossed in ferry boats, without the 
loss of a single man, in the face of two reconnoitering 
squadrons of the enemy, who gazed with bewildering 
amazement on the scene, and he was on the plains 
of Lombardy. Beaulieu, upon learning the successful 
stratagem, marched forward, hoping to give the French 
battle with the Po behind them, to make the advan- 
tage to him as great as possible. Napoleon anticipat- 
ed him in this design, and pressed on to Fombio, where 
the advanced divisions of the two armies met on the 
8th of May. The Austrian s occupied the steeples, the 
windows, and roofs of the houses, and poured down 
their fire on the enemy crowding the streets. Before 
the impetuous charge of the French, a third of their 
men fell, and the remainder fled ; leaving their cannon 
behind. On the banks of the Adda, Beaulieu drew 
up his army, defending every passage, especially the 
bridge of Lodi, across which he justly thought Napo- 
leon would attempt to force a transit. 

The wooden bridge of Lodi formed the scene of one 
of the most celebrated actions of the war. It was n 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 63 

great neglect in Bcaiilieu to leave it standing when he 
removed his headquarters to the east bank of the 
Adda ; his outposts were driven rapidly through the 
old straggling town of Lodi on the 10th; and the 
French, sheltering themselves behind the walls and the 
houses, lay ready to attempt the passage of the bridge. 
Beaulieu had placed a battery of thirty cannon so as to 
sweep it completely ; and the enterprise of storming it 
in the face of this artillery, and of a whole army drawn 
up behind, is one of the most daring on record. 

Bonaparte's first care was to place as many guns as 
he could get in order, in direct opposition to this Aus- 
trian batter}^ A furious cannonade on his side of the 
river also now commenced. The general himself ap- 
peared in the midst of the fire, pointing with his own 
hand two guns in such a manner as to cut off the 
Austrians from the only path by which they could 
have advanced to undermine the bridge ; and it was 
on this occasion that the soldiery, delighted with his 
dauntless exposure of his person, conferred on him his 
honorary nickname of The Little Corporal. In the 
mean time, he had sent general Beaumont and the 
cavalry to attempt the passage of the river, by a dis- 
tant ford (which they had much difficulty in effecting), 
and awaited with anxiety the moment when they 
should appear on the enemy's flank. When that took 
place, Beaulieu's line, of course, showed some con 
fusion, and Napoleon instantly gave the woixl. A 
column of grenadiers, whom he had kept ready drawn 
up close to the bridge, but under shelter of tho liouses. 



64 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

were in a moment wheeled to the left, and their lead- 
ing files placed on the bridge. They rushed on, shout- 
ing Yive la RepuUique! but the storm of grape-shot 
for a moment checked them. Bonaparte, Lannes, 
Berthier, and Lallemagne, hurried to the front, and 
rallied and cheered the men. The column dashed 
across the bridge in despite of the tempest of fire that 
thinned them. The brave Lannes was the first who 
reached the other side. Napoleon himself the second. 
The Austrian artillerj-men were bayoneted at their 
guLS, ere the other troops whom Beaulieu had removed 
too far back, in his anxiety to avoid the French 
battery, could come to their assistance. Beaumont, 
pressed gallantly with his horse upon the flank, and 
Napoleon's infantry formed rapidly as they passed the 
bridge, and charged on the instant ; the Austrian line 
became involved in inextricable confusion, broke up 
and fled. The slaughter on their side was great ; on 
the French side, there fell only two hundred men. With 
such rapidity, and consequently with so little loss, did 
Bonaparte execute this dazzling adventure — " the ter- 
rible passage," as he himself called it, "of the bridge 
ofLodi." 

It was, indeed, terrible to the enemy. It deprived 
them of another excellent line of defense ; and raised 
the enthusiasm of the French soldiery to a pitch of 
irresistible daring. Beaulieu, nevertheless, contrived 
to withdraw his troops in much better style than 
Bonaparte had anticipated. He gathered the scattered 
fragments of his force together, and soon threw the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 65 

line of the Mincio, a tributary of tlie Po, between him- 
self and his enemy. The great object, however, had 
been attained : and no obstacle remained between the 
victorious invader and the rich and noble capital of 
Lombardy. The garrison of Pizzighitone, seeing 
themselves effectually cut off from the Austrian army, 
capitulated. The French cavalry pursued Beaulieu as 
far as Cremona, which town they seized ; and Bona- 
parte himself prepared to march upon Milan. It was 
after one of these affairs that an old Hungarian officer 
was brought prisoner to Bonaparte, who entered into 
conversation with him, and among other matters ques- 
tioned him " what he thought of the state of the war ?" 
"Nothing," replied the old gentleman, who did not 
know he was addressing the general-in-chief, " nothing 
can be worse. Here is a young man who knows abso- 
lutely nothing of the rules of war ; to-day he is in our 
rear, to-morrow on our flank, next day again in our 
front. Such violations of the principles of the art of 
war are intolerable !" 

The charming and fruitful plains of Lombardy, 
which, conquered by Austria, were ruled by the Arch- 
duke Ferdinand, was now in the hands of Napoleon. 
While the Austrians withdrew into the Tyrol, Fer- 
dinand and the duchess, sadly retired from the palace 
of Milan. In the very ranks of the retreating troops, 
the revolutionary party secretly existing here, as well 
as elsewhere beneath the Austrian flag, displayed 
openly the tri-color cockade, and the municipal 
authorities waited with a cordial welcome upon the 



6Q LIFE OF N'APOLEON BONAPARTE. 

victorious Corsican. A moutli after tlie decisive blow 
a,t Monte Notte, and four days after the bloody affair 
at Lodi, Napoleon entered the capital of the Lombard 
kings in complete and splendid triumph. He there 
wrote the following brief note to his brother, in which 
both a royal dictation in family plans, and love for 
Josephine are disclosed : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Milan, May 14,* 1796, 
" All goes on well. Pray arrange Paulette's affairs. 
I do not intend Freron to marry her. Tell her so, 
and let him know it too. 

" We are masters of all Lombardy. 
" Adieu, my dear Joseph ; give me news of my wife. 
I hear that she is ill, which wrings my heart." 

Of the Italian powers, Naples alone remained hostile 
and unconquered. 

Napoleon's intention to humble Rome, however, he 
did not conceal, whenever the provocation or opportu- 
nity came. Persuaded that all the princes of the in- 
vaded peninsula were opposed to his progress, he 
resolved to make thorough work of the conquest, and 
regard those who were not with him as against him. 
The Dukes of Parma and Modena, possessed of great 
wealth but with small defense, submitted to his terms 
of tribute money, and a contribution of fine old paint- 
ings for the galleries of Paris. He then issued another 

* This date is erroneous. Napoleon entered Milan the 26th Floreal, 
or the 15th of May. — Tr. 



/ 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 67 

thrilling address to Lis army, already fluslicd with 
victory, aud impatient to follow their deified general. 

" Soldiers ! you have descended like a torrent from 
the Apennines. You have overwhelmed every thing 
which opposed your progress. Piedmont is delivered 
from the tyranny of Austria, Milan is in your hands, 
and the republican standards wave over the whole of 
Lombardy. The Dukes of Parma and Modena owe 
their existence to your generosity. The army which 
menaced you with so much pride, can no longer find 
a barrier to protect itself against your arms. The Po, 
the Ticino, the Adda, have not been able to stop you 
a single day. These boasted bulwarks of Italy have 
proved as nugatory as the Alps. Such a career of 
success has carried joy into the bosom of your countr3^ 
Fetes in honor of your victories have been ordered in 
all the communes of the Republic. There your 
parents, your wives, your sisters, your lovers, rejoice 
in your achievements, and boast with pride that you 
belong to them. Yes, soldiers ! you have indeed done 
much, but much remains still to be done. Shall pos- 
terity say that we knew how to conquer, but knew not 
how to improve victory ? Shall we find a Capua in 
Lombardy ? We have forced marches to make, ene- 
mies to subdue, laurels to gather, injuries to revenge. 
Let those who have whetted the daggers of civil war 
in France, who have assassinated our ministers, who 
have burned our ships at Toulon, let these tremble — 
the hour of vengeance has struck ! But let not the 
people be alarmed. We are the friends of the peopk 



G8 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

everywhere ; particularly of the Brutuses, the Scipios, 
and the great men we have taken for our models. To 
re-establish the capitol ; to replace the statues of the 
heroes who rendered it illustrious ; to rouse the 
Komans, stupefied by centuries of slaver}^ — such will 
be tlie fruit of your victories. They will form an 
epoch with posterity. To you will pertain the immor- 
tal glory of changing the face of the finest portion of 
Europe. The French, people, free and respected by 
the whole world, will give to Europe a glorious peace. 
You will then return to your homes, and your fellow- 
citizens will say, pointing to you, ' He belonged to the 
army of Italy 1' " What chord of a soldier's heart was 
not touched in this burst of eloquence. Exultation 
over the past success, the admiring gratitude of coun- 
try and friends, the glory and revenge of the fature, 
were all concentrated in the brilliant harangue. 
Then, while robbing the conquered of treasures to 
support the army, and pictures as souvenirs of his con- 
quest, he persuaded them that he was the devoted 
friend of the common people. 

Uj)on the sixth day after his magnificent entrance 
into the palace of Ferdinand, Napoleon left ife splendid 
apartments, in pursuit of the Austrian general. 

A detachment remained to blockade the citadel, 
which had not surrendered to the conqueror. Beau- 
lieu, was intrenched on the banks of the Mincio, with 
Mantua, " the citadel of Italy," on the left, and 
Peschiera, a Yenitian fortress he had taken, on the 
right. The Lago di Guarda spread its waters toward 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 09 

ihe Tyrolese Alps, extending tlie area of defense, 
and keeping unobstructed a channel of communication 
with Vienna. To this stronghold of a disciplined 
army, Napoleon moved rapidly, expecting nothing less 
than a complete defeat of his equally sanguine foe. 
At this juncture, the Directory were in the trepidation of 
fear at the spreading glory and commanding influence 
of their youthful hero, and they decided at once to 
check his royal march to renown. Their plan was to 
divide the command, and Kellerman, a distinguished 
and veteran officer, was appointed his associate, to 
pursue the Austrians, leaving Napoleon to march upon 
the Papal dominions. But his reply was characteristic 
of the man. He immediately tendered his resignation, 
and added briefly his reason : " One-half of the army 
of Italy can not suffice to finish the matter with the 
Austrians. It is only by keeping my force entire that 
I have been able to gain so many battles, and to be 
now in Milan. You had better have one bad general 
than two good ones." 

The Directory were vanquished, and left the com- 
mander-in-chief in undisputed direction of the troops 
— ^the last effi3rt to restrain or guide his unexampled 
career. And here another unexpected delay occurred 
in the progress toward Mantua. An insurrection had 
arisen in Lombard}'-, fanned by the heavy tribute de- 
manded by the French, and the irreverent disregard 
of their churches and clergy. A rumored advance of 
Austrian levies gave strength to the rebellion, until 
thirty thousand men were ready for conflict. They 



70 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

drove the French garrison before thiem at Pavia. Then 

commenced tlie tragical policy of Napoleon, indicated 
in his slaughter of the sections in Paris. Lannes was 
ordered to chastise the insurgents bj burning Benaseo, 
and putting the inhabitants to the sword, while Napo- 
leon marched on Pavia, swept the gates like cobwebs 
from bis path, and executed the leaders of the insur- 
rection. At Lugo, where a squadron of the republican 
• army had been defeated, he massacred without pity 
the entire population. The remedy was effective — 
the rebellion was drowned in blood. It is idle to 
apologize for the lawless destruction of life, on the 
ground of necessary chastisement. For there can be 
no excuse for so murderous and exterminating car- 
nage, when the people rose to defend their invaded 
soil. One such scene in the history of Washington 
would have darkened his fair fame forever. The truth 
is. Napoleon valued human life no more in questions 
of conquest and glory, than he did the fruitage of the 
plains over which he swept, like conflagration and 
pestilence conspiring to destroy both the proprietors of 
the soil and its vegetation. 

The versatility of Napoleon's imperial genius, was 
seen in his flxmiliarity with every department of 
human progress, and perfect self-possession on all oc- 
casions. At Pavia, amid the excitements of his con- 
quering presence, he entered its celebrated university, 
and passed from class to class with the rapidity of 
untamed enthusiasm, and with the precisicn and 
directness of a philosopher. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 71 

Napoleon, having subdued the Austrian and Catho- 
lic revolutionists, pressed forward toward the Mincio, 
Beaulieu was again deceived by the strategy of his 
enemy. He thought Napoleon would cross the river at 
Peschiera, while he was preparing to make the pass- 
age further down at Borghetto. The Austrian garrison 
demolished an arch of the bridge, which he soon sup- 
plied with planks, and in an hour was on the opposite 
bank. Regarding the immediate work accomplished, 
he was refreshing himself, and about to dine in the 
inn of which he took possession, when his attendants 
rushed into his presence, shouting, " To arms !" Bona- 
parte mounted a charger, and through a retired gate- 
way made his escape. A detachment of the Austrian 
force, stationed below Mincio, hearing the cannonade, 
had hastened to assist their comrades; but arriving 
too late, came near capturing the head and soul of 
the French army, while quietly resting in the rear 
of the marching columns of the pursued and the 
pursuing. Napoleon from this startling hint, formed 
a corps of picked men called guides to guard his 
person. 

From this aftair at Valleggio, sprang the Imperial 
Guard of Napoleon, whose fame will be indissolubly 
associated with that of their chief. Napoleon now 
laid siege upon Mantua, into which Beaulieu had 
l^oured fifteen thousand soldiers, and whose walls 
frowned defiantly upon the hitherto resistless enemy. 
The Austrian general waited for further reinforcements 
to garrison this fortress, around wh^ph the hopes of 



72 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONATARTE. 

millions gathered, while Napoleon beleaguered it with- 
out delay. 

The city and fortress is situated on an island, from 
which diverge five causeways, the only avenues of 
access, and these were guarded with intrenched camps, 
gates, drawbridges and batteries. With his usual pre- 
cipitate and well directed action, Bonaparte secured 
immediately by storm, four of the causeways, leaving 
the Austrians in possession of one, but that the most 
impregnable, called La Favorita, after a grand palace 
near it. To strengthen his position, he determined 
further, regardless of the rule of neutrality, to conquer 
the domain of Venice, stretching away from Mantua. 
Embracing the pretext of a reluctant refusal by 
Venice to let the Count of Provence, brother of 
Louis XVI., find a refuge in her territory — an act of 
inhospitality demanded by the Directory — he sent gar- 
risons to Verona and similar points of defense. He 
raised the tricolor at the Tyrolese passes, and returned 
to Milan to finish his work there. Serrurier remained 
at Mantua. Naples was under the reign of an ineffi- 
cient Bourbon, who was an ally of the English in the 
siege of Toulon, and now of the Austrians in the same 
cause. He was amazed and terrified with the victo- 
ries of Napoleon, and sent proposals of peace. Napo- 
leon was glad to consider them, both because he had 
other employment for his troops than war upon Na- 
ples, and a treaty would divert a strong force from 
the Austrian ranks. An armistice was soon succeeded 
by peace, which virtually placed in the power of the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 73 

French the King of the Sicilies. The path toward 
the Vatican was now cleared, and the Pope himself 
trembled before the 3"0ung Napoleon, who occupied 
Bologna and Ferrara, including four hundred prison- 
ers in the latter town, and the cardinal who com- 
manded the troops. The Pope in haste sent an. 
embassador to Bologna, to arrange the terms of an. 
armistice. With the surrender of the two cities 
already seized, and Ancona, Napoleon demanded a 
million of pounds sterling, a hundred paintings and 
statues, and five hundred ancient manuscripts for the 
museum of Paris. For a more definite treaty, he 
referred the Pontiff to the Directory. Tuscany, whose 
Duke had remained neutral in the contest with France, 
and even recognized cordially the Eepublic, next ar- 
rested the attention of Napoleon. At Leghorn, English 
vessels were riding in harbor under the eye of the gov- 
ernor. He was taken prisoner by Napoleon, and sent to 
the Grand Duke, on the charge of violating the neu- 
trality. The prince was brother of the Emperor of 
Austria, and this was evidence against his sincerity 
to the mind of the French commander, who consulted, 
under every pretext, the consummation of his stu- 
pendous plans. Eeferring to these abuses of power, 
he once remarked with apologetic truthfulness : " It is 
a sad case when the dwarf comes into the embrace of 
the giant, he is like enough to be suffocated ; but it is 
the giant's nature to squeeze hard." 

Thus Napoleon, setting aside even the wishes of the 
central government, which was imbued with the most 



74 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

fiery republicanism, instead of forming with revolu- 
tionary rapidity, republics of the submissive kingdoms, 
more wisely preferred to use them under the safer 
influence of the established order of things. There is 
a strange and fascinating pre-eminence in a mind, not 
in the maturity of manhood, treating with sublime in- 
difference the opinions and scepters of a continent, and 
crowning all by an independence, which dared to act 
without the approval of the authority which gave him 
his high command. 

"The cabinet of Vienna had at last resolved upon 
sending efficient aid to the Italian frontier. Beaulieu 
had been too often unfortunate to be trusted longer. 
Wurmser, who enjoyed a reputation of the highest 
class, was sent to replace him : thirty thousand men 
were drafted from the armies on the Rhine to accom- 
pany the new general ; and he carried orders to 
strengthen himself further on his march, by what- 
ever recruits he could raise among the warlike and 
loyal population of the Tyrol. 

" Wurmser's army, when he fixed his headquarters 
at Trent, mustered in all eighty thousand ; while Bo- 
naparte had but thirty thousand to hold a wide coun- 
try in which abhorrence of the French cause was now 
prevalent, to keep up the blockade of Mantua, and to 
oppose this fearful odds of numbers in the field. He 
was now, moreover, to act on the defensive, while his 
adversary assumed the more inspiriting character of 
invader. He awaited the result with calmness. 

" Wurmser might have learned from the successes of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 75 

Bonaparte the advantages of compact movement ; yet 
lie was unwise enough to divide his great force into 
three separate columns, and to place one of these upon 
a line of march which entirely separated it from the 
support of the others. He himself with his center, 
came down on the left bank of the Lago di Guarda, 
with Mantua before him as his mark ; his left wing, 
under Melas, was to descend the Adige, and drive the 
French from Verona ; while his right wing, under 
Quasdanovich, was ordered to keep down the vallpy 
of the Chiese, in the direction of Brescia, and so to 
cut off the retreat of Bonaparte upon the Milanese — 
in other words, to interpose the waters of the Lago di 
Guarda between themselves and the march of their 
friends — a blunder not likely to escape the eagle eye 
of Napoleon. 

"He immediately determined to march against Quas- 
danovich' and fight him where he could not be sup- 
ported by the other two columns. This could not be 
done without abandoning for the time the blockade of 
Mantua, which was accordingly done. The guns were 
buried in the trenches during the night of the 31st 
July, and the French quitted the j)lace with a precipi- 
tation which the advancing Austrians considered as 
the result of terror. 

"Napoleon, meanwhile, rushed against Quasdano- 
vich, who had already come near the bottom of the 
lake of Guarda. At Salo, close to the lake, and fur- 
ther from it, at Lonato, two divisions of the Austrian 
column were attacked and overwhelmed. Augereau 



76 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

and Masseaa, leaving merely rear-guards at Borghetto 
and Peschiera, now marched also ujjon Brescia. The 
whole force of Qiiasdonowich must inevitably have 
been ruined by these combinations had he stood his 
groimd ; but by this time the celerity of Napoleon had 
overawed him, and he was already in full retreat upon 
his old quarters in the Tyrol. Augereau and Massena, 
therefore, countermarched their columns, and returned 
toward the Mincio. 

" In the mean time Wurmser had forced their rear- 
guards from tljeir posts, and flushed with these suc- 
cesses, he now resolved to throw his whole force upon 
the French, and resume at the point of the bayonet his 
communication witli the scattered column of Quasda- 
novich. He was so fortunate as to defeat a Frencli di- 
vision at Lonato, and to occupy that town. But this 
new success was fatal to him. In the exultation of vic- 
tory he extended his line too much toward the right ; 
and this over-anxiety to open the communication with 
Quasdanovich had the eliect of so weakening his 
center, that Massena, boldly and skillfully seizing the 
opportunity, poured two strong columns on Lonato 
and regained the position ; whereon the Austrian, per- 
ceiving that his army was cut in two, was thrown into 
utter confusion. Some of his troops, marching to the 
right, were met by those of the 'French who had al- 
ready defeated Quasdanovich in that quarter, and 
obhged to surrender : the most retreated in great dis- 
order At Oastiglione alone a brave stand was made j 
but tljis position was at length forced by Augereau. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 77 

Such was the battle of Lonato. Thenceforth nothing 
could surpass the discomfiture and disarray of the Aus- 
trians. They fled in all directions upon the Mincio, 
where AVunnser himself, meanwhile, had been em- 
ployed in revictualing Mantua. 

" A mere accident had once almost saved them, One 
of the many defeated divisions of the army, wandering 
about in anxiety to find some means of reaching the 
Mincio, came suddenly on Lonato, the scene of the 
late battle, at a moment when Napoleon was there with 
only his staft' and guards about him. He knew not 
that any considerable body of Austrians remained to- 
gether in the neighborhood ; and but for his presence 
of mind must have been their prisoner. The Austrian 
had not the skill to profit by what fortune threw in his 
way; his enemy was able to turn even a blunder into 
an advantage. The officer sent to demand the surren- 
der of the town was brought blindfolded, as is the cus- 
tom, to his headquarters; Bonaparte, by a secret sign, 
caused his whole staff to draw up around him, and 
when the bandage was removed from the messenger's 
eyes, saluted him thus: 'What means this insolence? 
Do you beard the French general in the middle of his 
army ?' Tlie German recognized the person of Na- 
poleon, and retreated stammering and blushing, lie 
assured his commander that Lonato was occupied by 
the French in numbers that made resistance impossi- 
ble ; four thousand men laid down their arms; and 
then discovered, that if they had used them, nothing 
could have prevented Napolt;on from being their prize 



78 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

" Wurmser collected together the whole of his remaia- 
ing force, and advanced to meet the conqueror. He, 
meanwhile, had himself determined on the assault, and 
was hastening to the encounter. They met between 
Lonato and Castiglione. Wurmser was totally defeat- 
ed, and narrowly escaped being a prisoner; nor did he 
without great difficulty regain Trent and Eoveredo, 
those frontier positions from which his noble army had 
so recently descended with all the confidence of con- 
querors. In this disastrous campaign the Austrians 
Jost forty thousand men ; Bonaparte probably under- 
stated his own loss at seven thousand. During the 
seven days ivhich the campaign occupied, he never 
took off his boots, nor slept except by starts. The ex- 
ertions which so rapidly achieved this signal triumph 
were such as to demand some repose ; yet Napoleon 
did not pause until he saw Mantua once more com- 
pletely invested. The reinforcement and revictualing 
of that garrison were all that Wurmser could show, in 
requital of his lost artillery, stores, and forty thousand 
men." 

Napoleon was fond of incidents that tested or de- 
veloped character. Not a few officers in his army 
owed their elevation to events which occurred, natu- 
rally enough, among the varieties of life in the 
camp and field ; but to his observant eye, revealed the 
ch.aractcr and capacity of the men. One night he went 
the rounds of the sentinels in disguise, to see if they 
were acting with fidelity in the hour of peril. En- 
countering a soldier, whose post was at the junction 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAl'ARTE, 79 

ot two roads, he was ordered back at the point of the 
bayonet. Napoleon replied, "I am a general officer 
going the rounds to ascertain if all is safe." " I care 
not," said the sentinel, " my comniands are to let no 
one go by, and if you were the little corporal himself, 
you should not pass." Napoleon retired, and soon 
after gave the faithful soldier an officer's epaulette. 

He wrote a letter about this date to Joseph, which 
is a brief outline of his position, and evidence of an 
interest still lingering around the place of his birth, 
to which he had dispatched a force, to aid in the strug- 
gle against English dominion. 

" I have your letter of the 30th, without any details 
from Corsica. You will find with this letter my 
answer to one from the administrators of the Depart- 
ment du Liamone. Such being the law, the organiza- 
tion of the two departments must be retained. 

" We have made peace with Naples, and a treaty with 
Genoa, and we are going to enter into an alliance, of 
fensive and defensive, with Prussia. 

" Things are somewhat better on the Rhine. Moreau 
has gained a victory. Kleber replaces Beurnonville. 
All looks well. 

"I am anxious 'for regular news from Corsica, and to 
know the state of Ajaccio. My health is fair; noth- 
ing new in the army." 

In the beginning of September the Austrian troops 
were again moving toward Mantua. Wurmser, with 



80 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Dalional defiance at disaster, determined to save Man- 
tua, and reconquer Lombard/. 

lie had now an army of thirty thousand; and 
Davidowich at Eovcre(]o, twenty thousand more, to 
protect the Tyrol. Of these, twenty thousand were 
fresh ytroops. Napoleon was delighted with this divi- 
sion of an immense force, a fact, to his comprehensive 
view of the campaign, portending another ruinous de- 
feat. And no sooner had Wurmser reached Bassano, en- 
tirely separated from Davidowich, than he turned his 
fore* with the celerity of a tempest upon Eoveredo. The 
entrenchments of the enerhy were strong, and in their 
rear stood the castle of Galliano, on the brow of a 
precipice leaning over the Adige, whose waters flowed 
between shattered mountains ; a fortress which seemed 
lo scorn the roar of artillery, and the clash of arms. 
September 4th, with burning ardor, the French 
rushed upon the foe. The Austrians wavered and fell 
back ; height after height was swept by the impetu- 
ous battalions, until the victorious tri-color waved 
over the ruins, the dying and the dead. Fifteen field- 
pieces, and seven thousand prisoners, were in the hands 
of the French. The victory, for rapidity and precision 
in the assault, the fearless impetuosity of the soldiers, 
and the decisive results, was one of the most brilliant 
in Napoleon's career, and was so regarded by him. 

The following day he marched into Trent. Issu- 
ing a proclamation to the Tyrolese, declaring himself 
their friend who came to lift from their necks the 
heavy yoke of Austrian oppression, he pressed forward 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 81 

througli the defiles of Brent a, to fall upon Wurraser'a 
division. This general had heard with dismay of 
Davidowich's overthrow, but prepared with thirty 
thousand men to meet Napoleon with twenty thousand 
elated troops, who was impatient to deal a final blow 
upon the scattered army of Austria. A march of sixty 
miles, from Trent to Primolano, was accomplished in 
the incredibl}^ short period of two days. At dawn of 
day, Wurmser was aroused by Napoleon's cannon, and 
on September 8th, was fought the bloody battle of 
Bassano. Six thousand Austrians laid down their 
arms; Quasdonovich escaped with four thousand 
soldiers to Friuli ; while Wurmser with but sixteen 
thousand of his grand army, retreated toward Man- 
tua, the stronghold of security and hope, till Vienna 
might send reinforcements for their deliverance. 

" To reach that fortress it was necessary to force a 
passage somewhere on the Adige ; and the Austrian, 
especially as he had lost all his pontoons, would have 
had great difficulty in doing so, but for a mistake on 
the part of the French commander at Legnago, who, 
conceiving the attempt was to be made at Verona, 
marched to reinforce the corps stationed therfe, and so 
left his own position unguarded. Wurmser, taking 
advantage of this, passed with his army at Legnago, 
and after a series of bloody skirmishes, in which for- 
tune divided her favors pretty equally, at length was 
enabled to throw himself into Mantua. Napoleon 
made another narrow escape, in one of these skir- 
mishes, at Areola. He was surrounded for. a momentu 

4* 



82 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

aud had just galloped off, when Wurmser, coming up, 
and learning that the prize was so near, gave particular 
directions to bring him in alive !" 

Napoleon's impromptu replies, when they were de- 
manded, and action when needed, were so timely and 
often sublime, that the camp continually rang with the 
enthusiastic repetition of them. When at this period 
a soldier in the discontented ranks of the scantily sup- 
plied army, pointing to his tattered apparel, said, " Not- 
withstanding our victories we are clothed with rags ;" 
Napoleon answered, "You forget, my brave friend, 
that with a new coat, your honorable scars would no 
longer be visible." These words satisfied the man, 
and went from rank to rank of his comrades. Another 
incident after the battle of Bassano, is related, which 
illustrated the moral defects in Napoleon's character, 
and the cool contempt of life, with all the manly sym- 
pathies and impulses of his nature. 

Riding over the ensanguined plain amid heaps of 
the ghastly sleepers, beneath the moonlight of the 
midnight hour, he was startled by the piteous howl of 
a dog, watching the bloody corpse of his master. He 
silently paused on his steed, and his meditations he 
afterward thus expressed: "I know not how it was, 
but no incident upon any field of battle ever produced 
8o deep an impression upon my feelings. This man, 
thought T, must have had among his comrades friends, 
yet here he lies forsaken by all except his faithful dog 
What a strange being is man I How mysterious are 
his impressions I I had, without emotion, ordered 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 83 

battles wbicli bad decided the fate of armies. I had, 
with tearless eye, beheld the execution of these orders, 
ill which thousands of my countrymen were slain, 
and yet here my sympathies were most deeply and 
resistlessly moved by the mournful howling of a 
dog! Certainly at that moment I should have 
been unable to refuse any request of a suppliant 
enemy." 

Napoleon now wrote most appealingly to the Direc- 
tory for promised recruits. " Troops," he exclaimed, 
" or Italy is lost !" He at the same time animated his 
battalions, and prepared for conflict with the calm 
confidence of easy victory. "After making himself 
master of some scattered corps which had not been 
successful in keeping up with Wurmser, he reappeared 
once more before Mantua. The battle of St. George — 
so called from one of the suburbs of the city — was 
fought on the 13th of Septe i ber ; and after a prodig- 
ious slaughter, the French remained in possession of 
all the causeways; so that the blockade of the city 
and fortress was thenceforth complete. The garrison, 
when Wurmser shut hiniself up, amounted to twenty- 
six thousand : ere October was far advanced, the pes- 
tilential air of the place, and the scarcity and badness 
of provisions had filled his hospitals, and left him 
hardly half the number in fighting condition. The 
misery of the besieged town was extreme; and if 
Austria meant to rescue Wurmser, there was no time 
to be lost." 

With characteristic energy, another, the- fourth great 



84 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

army was raised, and Alvinzi, an experienced and 
able genera], placed at its head. With only twelve 
new battalions. Napoleon prepared to. meet these six- 
ty thousand troops, fresh from barracks and quiet 
homes. General Vaubois at Trent, and Massena at 
Bassano, were compelled to yield to the advancing 
enemy. Napoleon marched to the aid of Massena, and 
met the Austrians atVicenza in a short, fierce, and in- 
decisive battle ; both armies claimed ' the victory. 
The condition of the French was becoming critical. 

The extensive region between Brenta and the Adige 
was in the hands of Alvinzi, and Mantua was still the 
mighty bulwark of defense. Napoleon saw the neces- 
sity of rousing at once the courage of the defeated 
troops of Vaubois, and guard against a future disaster 
of a similar kind. He appeared before them surround- 
ed by his staff, with imposing severity of command, 
and thus addressed them : " Soldiers ! I am displeased 
with you. You have evinced neither discipline nor 
\alor. You have allowed yourselves to be driven 
from positions where a handful of resolute men might 
have arrested an army. You are no longer French 
soldiers I Chief of the staff, cause it to be written on 
their standards, ^Thei/ are no longer of the army of Italy f " 
This rebuke had its intended effect. The proudest 
veterans wept, and begged for another opportunity to 
test their heroism. They were restored to favor, and 
became his most daring soldiers. Napoleon now 
directed his forces toward the heights of Caldiero, 
where Alvinzi was entrenched, designing to fall like 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 85 

a descending bolt upon his division before it could 
unite with the troops of Uavidowich, 

The armies met. A storm of rain, succeeded bj 
wind and sleet, beat upon the desperate combatants, 
through which was poured the fire-sheet and leaden 
hail of battle. On the furrowed earth, reddened with 
blood, soon lay four thousand of the dying and dead, 
when without decisive victory, the exhausted foes re- 
tired from the arena of conflict. Napoleon, with 
disheartened ranks, fell back to Verona. Nearly 
forty thousand men were now sweeping their extend- 
ing lines around the French, numbering not more 
than fifteen thousand. A bold and immediate 
blow must be given, or the republican army would 
disappear like the snow that melted along their path. 
Leaving fifteen hundred men to protect Verona, he 
emerged at dead of night from its walls, and with no 
intelligence breathed to the anxious troops of his pur- 
pose, he moved toward Mantua, where the blockade 
continued, as if to abandon the unequal strife. But 
suddenly he wheeled into a road leading toward the 
Adige, and crossed dfrectly in the rear of the enemy. 
Between here and Areola, and around it, lay the wide 
morasses, across which narrow dykes only furnished 
highways. Areola must be reached and taken before 
he could rush between the great divisions of the Aus- 
trian army, and strike fatally with his comparatively 
inferior force. By daybreak, in three columns he 
charged upon the same number of dykes leading to 
Areola. Like the struggling light of morning, the 



86 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

truth broke upon the minds of the astonished Aus- 
trians, that Napoleon with his tried troops was again 
upon them, Augereau first stood upon the narrow 
bridge on which they must pass. Tlie deadly tempest 
of iron and lead drove his brave column back. Na- 
poleon saw that, if ever, Areola must be taken before 
Alvinzi arrived ; and seizing a standard, he dashed on 
to the bridge, exclaiming, "Conquerors of Lodi! fol- 
low your general !" The heroic grenadiers swept into 
the hurricane of battle, and again gave way; Napoleon 
was himself carried on the tide of combat to the very 
feet of the Austrians to the morass, and well-nigh 
smothered, while the soldiers of the enemy closed be- 
tween him and his troops. "Forward to save your 
general !" rang over the tumult, and like the falling 
flood of a cataract, the columns under the tricolor, 
dashed over the trembling bridge, rescued their com- 
mander, and carried the passage. This was the battle 
and victory of Areola. 

" This movement revived in the Austrian lines their 
terror foi the name of Bonaparte; and Alvinzi saw 
that no time was to be lost if he meant to preserve his 
communication with Davidowich. He abandoned 
Caldiero, and gaining the open country behind Areola, 
robbed his enemy for the moment of the advantage 
which his skill had gained. Napoleon, perceiving 
that Areola was no longer in the rear of his enemy, 
but in his front, and fearful lest Yaubois might be 
overwhelmed by Davidowich, while Alvinzi remained 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARPE. bi 

thus between him and the Brenta, evacuated Areola, 
and retreated to Ronco. 

"Next morning, having ascertained that Davido- 
wich had not been engaged with Vaubois, Napoleon 
once more advanced upon Areola. The place was 
defended- bravely, and again it was carried. But this 
second battle of Areola proved no more decisive 
than the first; for Alvinzi still contrived to maintain 
his main force unbroken in the difficult country be- 
hind ; and Bonaparte once more retreated to Ronco. 

" Tiie third day was decisive. On this occasion also 
he carried Areola ; and, by employing two strata- 
gems, Avas enabled to make his victory effectual. An 
ambuscade, planted among some willows, suddenly 
opened fire on a column of Croats, threw them into 
confusion, and, rushing from the coiicealment, crushed 
them down in the opposite bog, wliere most of them 
died. Napoleon was anxious to follow up this success 
by charging the Austrian main body on the firm 
ground behind the marshes. But it was no easy 
matter to reach them there. He had, in various quar- 
ters, portable bridges read}'- for crossing the ditches and 
canals ; but the enemy stood in good order, and three 
dajs' hard fighting had nearly exhausted his c wn men. 
In one of his conversations at St. Helena, he thus told 
the story. 'At Areola, I gained the battle with 
twenty-five horsemen. I perceived the critical mo- 
ment of lassitude in either army — when the oldest and 
bravest would have been glad to be in their tents. All 
my men had been engaged. Three times I had beoi: 



88 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

obliged to re-establish the battle. There remained to 
me but some tvyentj five guides. I sent them round 
on the flank of the enemy with three trumpets, bidding 
them blow loud and charge furiously. Here is ilie 
French cavalry, was the cry ; and tliey took to flight.' 
The Austrians doubted not that Murat and all the horse 
had forced a way through the bogs ; and at that mo- 
ment Bonaparte commanding a general assault in front, 
the confusion became hopeless. Alvinzi retreated 
finally, though in decent order, upon Montebello. 

"In these three days Bonaparte lost eight thousand 
men; the slaughter among his opponents must have 
been terrible. Once more the rapid combinations of 
Napoleon had rendered all the efforts of the Austrian 
cabinet abortive. For two months after the last day 
of Areola, he remained the undisturbed master of 
Lombardy. All that his enemy could show, in set-off 
for the slaughter and discomfiture of Alvinzi's cam- 
paign, was that they retained possession of Bassano 
and Trent, thus interrupting Bonaparte's access to the 
Tyrol and Germany. This advantage was not trivial ; 
but it had been dearly bought. 

" A fourth army had been baffled ; but the resolution 
of the imperial court was indomitable, and new levies 
were diligently forwarded to reinforce Alvinzi. Once 
more (January 7, 1797) the marshal found himself at 
the head of sixty thousand ; once more his superiority 
over Napoleon's muster-roll was enormous ; and once 
more he descended from the raountains with the 
hope of relieving Wurraser and reconquering Lorn- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 89 

bardy. The fifth act of the tragedy was yet to bo 
performed. 

" We may here pause, to notice soro.e civil events of 
importance wbicli occurred ere Alvinzi made his final 
descent. The success of the French naturally gave 
new vigor to the Italian party who, chiefly in the large 
towns, were hostile to Austria, and desirous to settle 
their own government on the republican model. Na- 
poleon had by this time come to be any thing but a 
Jacobin in his political sentiments; his habits of com- 
mand; his experience of the narrow and ignorant 
management of the Directory ; his personal intercourse 
with the ministers of sovereign powers ; his sense, daily 
strengthened by events, that whatever good was done 
in Italy was owing to his own skill and the devotion 
of his army — all these circumstances conspired to make 
him respect himself and contemn the government, 
almost in despite of which he had conquered king- 
doms for France. He therefore regarded now with 
little sympathy the aspirations afler republican organi- 
sation, which he had himself originally stimulated 
among the northern Italians. He knew, however, 
that the Directory had, by absurd and extravagant de- 
mands, provoked the Pope to break off the treaty of 
Bologna, and to raise his army to the number of forty 
thousand-;— that Naples had every disposition to back 
his holiness with thirty thousand soldiers, provided 
any reverse should befallthe French in Lombardy — 
and, finally, that Alvinzi was rapidly preparing for 
another march, with numbers infinitely superior to 



00 1.1 KK OK N V l't>l.KON l!v>NVrAnTK. 

\vh;ii lir OvMilil itiiiisolt'rxiort tVoin \\\c !.\'ovormiuMit o\ 
Paris ;''^' aiul considoriuj:; those oiivuinstaiK-os, lie felt 
liimseU'eoiiijH^lleil to sivk strengtli by gratilVing his 
Italian iVieiuis, Two republics aoeoi\lingly were 
orgj\nizocl ; the Oispailane ami the 'rranspadane — 
bainliuaiils rather than sisters o( the grt\it Fivnch 
demoeraev. Thes.> events took ]>laee iluring the 
periovl of inilitarv inaction winch followcii the victories 
oi' Arcv^la. The new republics liastened to repay 
>»apoleon's tavor bv raising troops, ami placed at his 
ihspixsjil ft ft>ive which ho consiclei-ed as sullicieut to 
keep the papal anny in chcciv during the expected 
iiMiewal of the Austrian campaign." 

lie wivto to bis bn^ther who was in Corsica, re- 
vealing that wonderful capacity which embraced, 
without appanmt etVort or confusion, the most mag- 
niticent schemes of conquest, and the minutest de- 
tails of domestic arn^ngement ; the improvement of 
tlie dwelling iu which lie pissevl his boyhood. 

• MiLAX, Pi>oo<>mber 10. 1"96. 
" ^Ve have made jvaee with Parma. I exjx^jt every 
day to hear that you are the minister there. Come 
Ivack as soi^^n as you can. Mix youi-self up little, or not 
at all. with Corsican polities, Arn^uge our domestic 
«f¥;urs. L<."t our house bo in a habitable state, such as 
it \vi\s, adding to it the ap*»rtment of Ignjudo, and do 
little things that art? neeoss;\ry to improve the street. 

* Bouajxtrto. to rx>plut.x'> all his U>iss«.^$ iu the last two coiupaUgna^ had 
i»«>iv*d oul}' sovou thotvsaud rooruits. 



L1I<K OK NAPOLKON HO N A I' A K T K , 01 

t 

■'I expect Fcscli and Paulettx) at Milan in a fort- 
night. As you return by Milan, settle the San- 
Miniato* business. Miot goes to 'J^urin ; Cacault 
to Florence." 

Willi the dawn of a new year (1797), Alvinzi was 
mustering a liftli army for another carnj)ai<^n against 
the French. The gentry and the peasantry emulated 
each oilier in cnthasiaslic devotion to the common 
cause, and (svcn the wc^men wrought banncis, and 
animated the trooj)s in their preparation for the har- 
vest of death. Nafioleon, to prevent the enlistment of 
the Tyrolesc, proclaimed that every man found in 
arras should be shot. The haughty Austrian replied, 
that for every slain peasant he would hang a French 
prisoner of war. These murderous threats were ended 
in Napoleon's assurance to Alvinzi, that the execution 
of a Frenchman would secure the gibbeting of his 
nephew who had been taken captive. 

The Austrian general sent a spy toward Mantua, to 
convey if possible to Wurmser his proximity, and 
readiness to afford relief. The peasant wandered over 
the country in the plainest guise ; but nothing escaped 
Napoleon's vigilance. lie was arrested and brought 
before the commander-in-chief, when in alarm he con- 
fessed that the ball of wax containing the message 
was in his stomach ; he had swallowed it. Tho 
means were immediately applied to recover the dispatch, 
and soon the surrender was madj, and Napoleon pos^ 

* Bonaparto property. 



92 LIP^E OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

sessed of the intelligence wliicli decided bis line of 
march. 

Upon the tempestuous 12tli of January, at nightfall, 
the tidings came to the French camp, that Alvinzi was 
moving down upon their battalions from the Tyrol, 
in two difierent directions. Napoleon was at Yerona 
watching the movements; Joubert was stationed at 
Kivoli, and Augereau's division ordered to look after 
Provera, whoj-e troops were following the Brenta, to 
form a junction with the force before the wdlls of 
Mantua. The plan was to unite the Austrian strength 
bj separate marches, in the rescue of Wurmser, which, 
if successful, would have rendered the position of the 
French one of great peril. On the 13th, word was 
sent to Napoleon that Joubert had with difficulty re- 
sisted the superior force whicii was wasting his ranks. 
With another astonishingly rapid movement. Napoleon 
reached at two o'clock in the morning, the heights of 
Kivoli, and in the clear, still moonlight, surveyed the 
slumbering host, many of whom were enjoying their 
last repose. 

" Napoleon's keen eye, observing the position of the 
five encampments below, penetrated the secret of Al- 
vinzi ; namely, that his artillery could not j'ct have 
arrived, otherwise he would not have occupied ground 
so distant from the object of attack. He concluded 
that the Austrian did not mean to make his grand * 
assault Ycry early in the morning, and resolved to 
force him to anticipate that movement. For this pur- 
pose, ho took all possible pains to conceal his own ar- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 93 

rival ; and prolonged, by a series of petty manoeu\re.s, 
the enemy's belief that be had to do with a mere out- 
post of the French. Alvinzi swallowed the deceit; 
and, instead of advancing on some great and well- 
arranged system, suffered his several columns to 
endeavor to force the heights by insulated movements, 
which the real strength of Napoleon easily enabled 
him to baffle. It is true that at one moment the 
bravery of the Germans had nearly overthrown- the 
French on a point of pre-eminent importance ; but 
Napoleon himself, galloping to the spot, roused by hL^ 
voice and action the division of Massena, who, having 
marched all night, had lain down to rest in the ex- 
treme of weariness, and seconded by them and their 
gallant general, swept' every thing before him. The 
French artillery was in position ; the Austrian (accord- 
ing to Napoleon's shrewd guess) had not yet come up, 
and this circumstance decided the fortune of the day. 
The cannonade from the heights, backed by successive 
charges of horse and foot, rendered every attempt to 
storm the summit abortive; and the main body of the 
imperialists was already in confusion, and, indeed, in 
flight, ere one of their divisions, which had been sent 
round to outflank Bonaparte, and take higher ground 
in his rear, was able to execute its errand. When, 
accordingly, Lusignan's division at length achieved its 
destined object — it did so, not to complete the misery 
of a routed, but to swell the prey of a victorious, 
enemy. Instead of cutting off the retreat of Joubert, 
Lusignan found himself insulated from Alvinzi, and 



94 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

forced to lay down his arms to Bonaparte. ' Here was 
a good plan,' said Napoleon, 'but these Austrians are 
not apt to calculate the value of minutes.' Had Lusig- 
nan gained the rear of the French an hour earlier, 
while the contest was still hot in front of the heights 
of Kivoli, he might have made the 14th of January 
one of the darkest, instead of one of the brightest, days 
in the military chronicles of Napoleon. 

" He, who in the course of this trying day had had 
three horses shot under him, hardly waited to see Lu- 
signan surrender, and to intrust his friends, Massena, 
Murat, and Joubert, with the task of pursuing the fly- 
ing colums of Alvinzi. He had heard, during the 
battle, that Provera had forced his way to the Lago di 
Guarda, and was already, by means of boats, in com- 
munication wnth Mantua. The force of Augereau 
having proved insufficient to oppose the march of the 
imperialists' second column, it was high time that Na- 
poleon himself should hurry with reinforcements to the 
lower Adige, and prevent Wurraser from either hous- 
ing Provera, or joining him in the open field, and so 
effecting the escape of his own still formidable garrison, 
whether to the Tyrol or the Pomagna. 

" Having marched all night and all next day; Na- 
poleon reached the vicinity of Mantua late on the 15th. 
He found the enemy strongly posted, and Serrurier's 
situation highly critical. A regiment of Provera's 
hussars had but a few hours before nearly established 
themselves in the suburb of St. George. This danger 
had been avoided, but the utmost vigilance was nee- 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 95 

essa.ry. Tlie French general himself passed the night 
in walking about the outposts, so great was hia 
anxiety. 

" At one of these he found a grenadier asleep by 
the root of a tree ; and taking his gun, without waken- 
ing him, performed a sentinel's duty in his place for 
about half an hour ; when the man, starting from his 
slumbers, perceived with terror and despair the coun- 
tenance and occupation of his general. He fell on his 
knees before him. ' My friend,' said Napoleon, ' here 
is your musket. You had fought hard, and marched 
long, and your sleep is excusable ; but a moment's in- 
attention might at present ruin the army. I happened 
to be awake, and have held your post for you. You 
will be more careful another time.' 

" It is needless to say how the devotion of his men 
was nourished by such anecdotes as these flying ever 
and anon from column to column. Next morning 
there ensued a hot skirmish, recorded as the battle of 
St. George. Provera was compelled to retreat ; and 
Wurmser, who had sallied out and seized the causeway 
and citadel of La Favorita,. was fain to retreat within 
his 9ld walls, in consequence of a desperate assault 
headed by Napoleon in person. 

"Provera now found himself entirely cut off from 
Alvinzi, and surrounded with the army of the French. 
He and five thousand men laid down their arms. 
Various bodies of the Austrian force, scattered over 
the country between the Adige and the Brenta, follow- 
ed the example ; and the brave Wurmser, whose pro 



96 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAlil'E, 

visions were by this time exhausted, found himself at 
length under the necessity of sending an ojDfer of capit- 
ulation." 

The Austrian general was now in extremity. His 
garrison was reduced one half, the salted horseflesh 
gone, and famine stalked before his anxious mind. 
Klenau, the bearer of dispatches, entered the tent of 
General Serrurier, and with a flourish of deceptive 
words, conveyed the impression that Wurmser could 
hold the citadel for several days longer, but would 
yield upon honorable conditions of surrender. Na- 
poleon started up from a corner of the tent, and pre- 
senting through the folds of his cloak, his calm face 
and piercing eye, glanced upon the aid-de-camp, and 
then rapidly wrote a few lines, which he handed to 
the astonished messenger, saying, " These are the 
terms to which your general's bravery entitles him. 
He may have them to-day ; a week, a month hence, he 
shall have no worse. Meantime, tell him that general 
Bonaparte is about to set out for Rome." February 
2d, Mantua was evacuated. Napoleon to spare the he- 
roic Wurmser's feelings, delegated Serrurier to receive 
the veteran's sword ; a delicate and beautiful expres- 
sion of generosity, which greatly affected the Austrian 
commander. Besides sparing him the humiliation of 
being present at the capitulation. Napoleon allowed 
him to retire with two hundred horse and five hun- 
dred men, unmolested to Austria. "When the Direc- ^ 
tory remonstrated against such lenity, he replied 
indignantly, "I have granted the Austrian such terms 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 97 

as were, in my judgment, due to a brave and honor- 
able enemy, and to the dignity of the French re- 
public." 

Daring all these scenes Napoleon's heart was true to 
Josephine, and he turned from the shouts of victory, 
and the applause of millions, to win the smile of her 
approval. Of the correspondence which passed at that 
period, but little that is authentic is preserved. Ex- 
travagant letters are attributed to him, and their 
authenticity doubted by the best historians. But it 
were not strange if at twenty-six, with a distant bride 
he had left so quickly, and covered with glory that 
'/rould bewilder an aged conqueror, he did pour his 
raptures in language whose ardor seems now the 
fond ravings of a happy lunatic, rather than the 
utterance of an intellect well poised as it was creative 
and mighty. 

Eugene joined his father-in-law, in the campaign, 
and won distinction for himself, grateful to Napoleon 
as it was flattering to the young soldier. This will 
appear in the subjoined note originally furnished by 
Josephine : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPHINE. 

" My Beloved Friend — My first laurel is due to 
my country ; my second shall be yours. While 
pressing Alvinzi, I thought of France ; when he was 
beaten, I thought of you. Your son will send you a 
scarf surrendered to him by Colonel Morback, whom 
he took prisoner with his own hand. You see. 

5 



98 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

madam, that our Eugene is worthy of his father. Do 
not deem me altogether undeserving of having suc- 
ceeded to that brave and unfortunate general, under 
whom I should, have felt honored to have learned to 
conquer. I embrace you. 

' Bonaparte." 

Alvinzi thus completely routed, Wurmser and 
Provera surrendering, left the spreading plains and 
swelling slopes of Lombardy under the banner of the 
republic, and threw around the name of Napoleon, a 
dazzling halo of premature glory, which, with com- 
paratively small abatement, was j^et the merited re- 
ward of unexampled military wisdom, and exhaiistlcsa 
activity on the field of daring and heroic deeds. 



CHAPTER III. 

Napoleon and the Popo. — Venice. — Archduke Charles. — Battle of Tag* 
liamento. — Incideuts. — Retreat of Cliarles. — Negotiations. — Piche- 
gru. — The Directory. — Treaty of Campo Formio. — Court of Milan. — 
Josephine. — Napoleon at Rastadt. — lie reaches Paris. — His recep- 
tion. — Life at the Capital. — Napoleon and England. — lie is appointed 
to command an Invasion of England. — He urges an expedition to 
Egypt. — Embarkation. — Malta taken. — Letter to Joseph. — He arrives 
at Alexandria. — Addresses the Army and the Egyptians. — March up 
the Nile. — The Mamelukes. — Battle of the Pyramids. — Cairo taken.— 
Letter to Joseph. — Battle of Aboukir. — Napoleon's Power. — Expedi- 
tion to the Red Sea. — Siege of Aero. — The Plague. — Napoleon re- 
treats to Egypt. — Scenes in the March. — The Turks defeated at 
Aboukir. — Napoleon returns to France. — Reasons. — The Domestic 
Son'ow. — The Reconciliation. — The Crisis. 

Napoleon now turned his attention to the Pope, 
whose ai'ray of forty thousand men had hovered 
around the French, waiting only for the opportunity 
to strike with effect in the holy war for his trembling 
throne. The intelligence of the surrender of Mantua, 
and the routing of the Austrian troops, whose splendid 
array of two hundred thousand soldiers since the war 
began, had melted away before the republican forces, 
spread terror through the Vatican. But it was decided 
to offer resistance to the victorious foe. Pope, cardi- 
nals, and monks, appealed to every motive of a relig 
ious and political nature, to rouse the zeal and hero- 
ism of the battalions. In every hamlet the tocsin 



100 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tolled, and unceasing prajers were offered. Victor, 
.with four thousand French, and an equal number of 
Italiang, advanced toward Iniola, where, on the banks of 
the Senio, were encamped eight thousand of the ene- 
my. The commander, Cardinal Burea, unused to the 
weapons and rules of carnal warfare, sent a flag of truce 
to Napoleon, assuring him if he continued to advance 
he should fire upon him — an announcement which 
sent a shout of laughter along tlie ranks of the elated 
victors. Bonaparte, by a rapid march, threw his horse 
across the river under cover of darkness, to cut off re- 
treat, and then, with the morning, opened the conflict, 
which in an hour drove all but the dead and captured 
in confusion from the field. He pressed forward to 
Faenza, whose closed gates and defiant walls, soon 
gave way, and the unpitied populace were swept before 
the crimson bayonets like autumnal leaves in the tem- 
pest. Three thousand, with Colli, surrendered, and 
Ancona was entered. 

" The priests had an image of the Virgin Mary at 
this place, which they exhibited to the people in tlie 
act of shedding tears, the more to stimulate them 
against the impious republicans. On entering the 
place, the French were amused with discovering the 
machinery by which this trick had been performed : 
the Madonna's tears were a string of glass beads which 
flowed by clock work, within a shrine which the 
w^orshipers were too respectful to approach very 
nearly." 

Napoleon exposed the trick ; and by his lenity tc 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 101 

the prisoners, acquired immediately great influence 
over the people who had dreaded his presence as that 
of a lawless demon. February 10th, he marched into 
Loretto, and seized its treasures. 

The Directory, with the sanguinary spirit of the 
revolutionary movement, desired Napoleon to treat 
with unsparing severity the hostile parties in the con- 
quered realms, especially the despotic hierarchy of 
Eome. He, on the contrary, with respectful attention, 
promised the priests in exile in the papal states pro- 
tection and food within the monasteries which came 
beneath his banner. This unexpected mercy em- 
boldened the Pope to send an envoy to open a treaty 
with Napoleon, which was consummated the 12th of 
February, 1797. Avignon was formally ceded ; Fer- 
rara, Bologna, and Romagna, with Ancona, abandoned ; 
the works of art, before pledged, presented ; and a 
million and half pounds sterling paid into the treasury. 
The pontiff was left in possession of a crown which 
was, after all, the mockery of royal authority — his 
holiness, swelled the vassal-train of the Corsican. 
Venice alone remained unsubdued, and disputing the 
claim of the conqueror to universal mastery of north- 
«5rn Italy. With more than fifty thousand troops, that 
government demanded the right of neutrality, while 
Napoleon urged an alliance with France. These 
.■^oldiers were the wild Sclavonians ; the defense of a 
people discordant and revolutionary. Bonaparte in 
view of their condition, and his own immediate work, 
''.onsented to their proud demand", and said, " Be neu- 



102 LIFE OV NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tral then; but remember, tliat if you violate your 
neutrality, if you harass my troops, if you cut off my 
supplies, I will take ample vengeance." 

Nine days had passed since the conflict began with 
the Pope, whose consecrated scepter had made kings 
kiss the dust of his feet, and the youthful general of 
France was greater than he. Napoleon now turned 
to his discomfited, brave, and unjdelding enemy. 
His face was toward Vienna, the capital of Austria. 
Under Archduke Charles, a talented prince in the 
prime of manhood, a sixth campaign was opened. Of 
the French force, ten thousand men remained to guard 
the Yenetian neutrality, while he took up head-quar- 
ters at Bassano. Again he addressed an army, rein- 
forced by twenty thousand troops ; making in all fifty 
thousand, with which to oppose nearly double the 
number that would pour into the arena of a combat, 
on which the civilized world looked with absorbing 
interest. These were his eloquent words : '' boldiers 1 
the campaign just ended has given you imperishable 
renown. You have been victorious in your fourteen 
pitched battles and sevent}^ actions. You have taken 
more than a hundred thousand prisoners, five hundred 
field-pieces, two thousand heavy guns, and four pon- 
toon trains. You have maintained the army during 
the whole campaign. In addition to this, you have 
sent six million of dollars to the public treasury, and 
have enriched the National Museum with three hun- 
dred master-pieces of the arts of ancient and modern 
Italy, which it has required thirty centuries to produca 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 103 

You have conquered the finest countries in Europe. 
The French flag waves for the first time upon the 
Adriatic, opposite to Macedon, the native country of 
Alexander, Still higher destinies await you. I know 
that you will not prove unworthy of them. Of all the 
foes that conspired to stifle the republic in its birth, 
the Austrian emperor alone remains before you. To 
obtain peace, we must seek it in the heart of his heredi- 
tary state. You will there find a brave people, whose 
religion and customs you will respect, and whose prop- 
erty you will hold sacred. Remember that it is lib- 
erty you carry to the brave Hungarian nation." 

To give the details of the sixth campaign, which 
now commenced, would be to repeat the story which 
has been already five times told. The archduke, fet- 
tered by the aulic council of Vienna, saw himself com- 
pelled to execute a plan which he had discrimination 
enough to condemn. The Austrian army once more 
commenced operations on a double basis — one great 
division on the Tyrolese frontier, and a greater under 
the archduke himself on the Friulese ; and Napoleon 
— who had, even when acting on the defensive, been 
able, by the vivacity of his movements, to assume the 
superiority on whatever point he chose to select — was 
not likely to strike his blows with less skill and vigor, 
now thit his numbers, and the quiescence of Italy be- 
hind hi.n, permitted him to assume the offensive. 

The Austrians lay along the banks of the Taglia- 
mento, with the mountain-barriers separating Italy 
from Germany in their front. Napoleon reached the 



10-i LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

dividing-stream, and after a flourish of bis battalions, 
retired to encamp, as if from weariness, and to seek 
repose. The stratagem was not detected by Prince 
Charles, whose ranks also withdrew to their tents for 
the night. Two hours vanished, and the trumpets 
sounded. The French dashed into the river, and be- 
fore the Austrians could recover self-possession, were 
half way over. Upon the unformed lines, tbe con- 
fident columns of Napoleon rushed with resistless 
impetuosity. 

This was on the 12th of March. The archduke 
retreated, and tbe French pursued, storming Gradisca, 
and taking five thousand prisoners. Through the 
stroDgholds of Trieste and Fiume, and over mountain 
passes, left crimson with the blood of foemen, they 
followed the thinning ranks of the gallant Austrians. 
Meanwhile General Laudon kad descended upon the 
Tyrol and gained possession of the defended points. 
The Venetians, encouraged by this success, raised the 
flag of open hostility, and their friends, wherever in 
the ascendant, commenced a brutal slaughter of French 
prisoners in the hospitals of the insurrectionary cities. 
Witk these advantages behind the French, Charles 
thought to pusk his way to Yienna, and leading his 
enemy into the center of the German territory, and 
under the walls of the capital, meet the valor of the 
empire where it would glow most intensely, and make 
a decisive display on the-field of glory. 

At this crisis came orders from the court of Vienna 
to close the wasting conflict of six years, and erabrac€> 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 105 

the earliest opportunity for negotiating a treaty of 
peace. A few days before, Charles had refused the 
appeal of Napoleon to terminate the desolating war, 
Avhich he maintained alone, and which ravaged the 
land, with no prospective benefit to his country, or 
honor to his arms. Till now, he had no choice but 
to command the splendid battalions, already sadly 
invaded by the fire of as heroic, and more successful 
warriors. Terror reigned at Vienna, Princes and 
royal treasures were already across the Hungarian 
boundary, and all hearts longed for cessation of hosti- 
lities, which as yet gave the laurel of conquest to "the 
man of destiny." The result was the treaty of Leoben, 
April 18, 1797. The preliminary expressions recogniz- 
ing the French Republic, Napoleon ordered stricken 
out, evidently with his marvelous foresight, anticipating 
a change in the government, which might require un- 
fettered action, when he should lay aside the sword 
for the reins of authority. Without waiting to watch 
the completion of the negotiation, he gave it to safe 
hands, and like the lion coming down upon his help- 
less prey, marched toward the treacherous Venetians, 
who, trembling with alarm, sought terms of submission. 
Napoleon replied, " French blood has been treacher- 
ously shed ; if you could offer me the treasures of Peru, 
if you cover your whole dominion with gold, the 
atonement would be insufficient : the lion of St. Mark 
must bite the dust." His scornful allusion to the 
armorial bearing of Venice, conveying the assuranco 

of merciless vengeance, spread fear over the city, 

5* 



106 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Amid the chaos of conflicting interests and emotions in 
the city, Napoleon appeared on the coast of the Lagoon. 

May 81st, intelligence was received that the Senate 
made no further resistance. But it was his time for 
revenge ; and he began the work. The chiefe in the 
insurrections of Lombardy were demanded ; a demo- 
cratic government formed; Italian lands ceded; five 
ships of war, and three million francs in gold, and 
the same amount in naval stores, were claimed ; and 
added to all, he selected twenty pictures and five hun- 
dred valuable manuscripts. Then, with the air of 
Europe's master, he made Venice his rendezvous till 
the elements there also were calmed beneath his eagle 
eye, and Lingly command. 

The Senate, like Austria before them, tried the 
power of a magnificent bribe of seven millions of 
francs, to secure his clemency. He scorned in this, 
as in every instance, the test of his republican prin- 
ciples. His reply to the Austrian offer of a German 
principality, " I thank the emperor, but if greatness is 
to be mine, it shall come from France," revealed the 
identity of his greatness with that of his adopted 
country. France was to be the splendid pyramid 
hung with trophies of war, and adorned with art, on 
whose summit he had resolved to stand. 

Among the papers of the Count D'Entraigues, an 
exiled agent of the Bourbons, whom the unfaithful 
Venetians delivered to Napoleon, he found undoubted 
proof of the criminal negotiations of Greneral Pichegru 
on the Rhine, with' the Bourbon princes, and his dis- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 107 

guised action on the field against the republic. The 
facts were sent immediately to Paris. Pichegru, dis- 
placed by Heche, returned to the capital, became a 
member of the council of five hundred, and on the 
meeting of the chambers, took the presidency o£ that 
royalist assembly. 

At this juncture, the troubled, jealous Directory, 
sent for Napoleon. He had assumed responsibility 
never before attempted by an officer under command. 
When General Clarke appeared in behalf of the 
government at Leoben, to dictate the terms of treaty, 
he set him aside with perfect coolness and decision. 
And in the pending cause with Austria, he disregard- 
ed the wishes of the republican rulers, and surrendered 
back Mantua. At this time, he likewise laid his hand 
on the revolution in Genoa, and gave them their form 
of government. It is not strange that the central 
power of France should inquire, " Does the lecturer 
of the Ligurian republic mean to be our Washington, 
our Monk, or our Cromwell ?" Napoleon dispatched 
Augereau to Paris at the head of the national guard, 
and assured the Directory he was prepared to aid them 
with fifteen thousand men, in the threatened collision 
with the royalists. Meanwhile, Hoche was ordered 
there by the government with his Rhenish troops; 
and September 4, 1797, the minority of the Directory 
were subdued, and Pichegru with one hundred and 
fifty others, sent into exile. Bonaparte was displeased 
with the movement independent of himself, and the 
lenity shown Pichegru. 



108 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

He wrote about this date several letters to Joseph, 
one of which we give, affording a pleasant view of hia 
versatile talent, taste, and tact; while it docs honor to 
his heart. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"October 16, 1197. 

" I request you, Citizen Minister,* to made known 
to the composers in the Cisalpine Kepublic, and gen- 
erally in Italy, that I offer, by competition, for the 
best march, overture, etc., on the death of General 
Hoche, a medal worth sixty sequins. The pieces must 
be received by the 80th Brumaire [20th November]. 
You will have the kindness to name three artists or 
amateurs as adjudicators, and to charge yourself with 
the other details." 

After arranging his affairs in Italy, he was joined by 
Josephine, at the fine old castle of Montebello, near 
Milan, where he fixed his miniature court ; a delight- 
ful country-seat six miles from the city. Here Joseph- 
ine began to enjoy what circumstances hitherto had 
denied her since her second marriage — the tranquillity 
and joy of home. She won the affection and homage of 
the gay Milanese ; many lavished upon her attentions 
expressive of gratitude to the victor, whom they regard- 
ed as theii liberator, Thus from pure admiration or 
motives of policy, all classes sought Avith enthusiasm to 
honor the wife of Napoleon, and enhance the pleasures 

* Joseph had been appointed French embassador at Rome. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. lOU 

of her sojourn among the romantic scenery of that 
country, whose southern boundary was beautiful and 
fallen Italy. 

But she soon became weary of the pomp and cere- 
mony of what was to her, except in name, a splendid 
court. Balls and the drama, fetes and concerts, which 
she felt obhged to grace with her presence, were to 
her imaginative and sensitive nature the tiresome 
whirl of a dazzling panorama of vanishing views, and 
she longed for more elevated communion. Slie there- 
fore went forth, and, under a sky which bent lovingly 
over her as when she was the charming Creole of 
Martinique, looked upon the glorious summits, and the 
unrivaled lakes that slept in their embrace. Her ex- 
cursions to the Apennines, Lake Como, and especially 
to Lake Maggiore, afforded her refreshment of spirit 
and of frame. On the latter clear expanse, repose the 
Borromean Islands, celebrated by Tasso and Ariosto, 
in glowing language. These lie in a gi^lf, ornamented 
with- tasteful dwellings, and terraced gardens, with the 
orange, citron, and myrtle, to lend shade and beauty 
to the esplanade. In the distance the Alps lift their 
solemn brows into the azure, girdled with cultivated 
fields, mantling foliage, and glittering with ice-plains, 
that flash in the sunlight hke a motionless sea of 
diamonds. On the other side is the open country, 
covered with vineyards, dotted with villages and cities, 
and presenting all the variety of picturesque landscape 
BO attractive to the traveler in Southern Europe. 
Josephine stood here entranced, like the Peri of this 



110 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

paradise. At her feet lay the crystal waters, reflect- 
ing the green slopes, the mansions of wealth, and the 
wandering clouds ; while the white wings of distant 
sail-boats passed each other on the bright undulations. 
Napoleon loved this resort, where the grand and beau- 
tiful encircled him, invested with associations of the 
glory of a former age. His expanding genius, and 
soaring ambition, were pleased with scenes that em- 
bellished the majestic heights guarding the land of his 
victories, and which were silent exponents of his own 
dawning greatness. Even in his social intercourse he 
manifested a consciousness of superiority' — an isolation 
of character, in avoiding a disclosure of his purposes 
and feelings, while his penetrating glance and admir- 
able tact drew from others their every shade of chang- 
ing thought. Josephine complains of this restless in- 
dependence and distrust, which withheld from her the 
unrestrained intercoarse of confiding affection. There 
was in her a transparent candor and lively sympathy, 
Napoleon doubtless feared ; for secrecy he well knew 
was his only security while his movements, which had 
the stamp of destiny, were under the inspection of a 
legion of powerful foes. And there is always con- 
nected with great genius an egoism, as the Germans 
term this self-reliance and initability, which are un- 
favorable either to friendship or domestic felicity. But 
far as any object besides the scepter of Europe could 
reign over his heart, Josephine had control, and wat^f 
cherished in moments of rest from his stupendous 
plans, with the fondness of early attachment. He was 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. Ill 

exceedingly kind to her son and daughter, both in cor- 
respondence, and projecting their advancement and 
happiness, in proportion to his own exaltation and 
resources of usefulness to friends. He was not -desti- 
tute of deep emotion — nor a stranger to the better feel- 
ings of our nature ; and yet there was ever o conflict 
between these and the attainment of his chief good — 
the unquestioned pre-eminence of power which should 
overshadow a continent — a principle of action that, 
in its legitimate result, would, if possible map out 
the heavens, and give away to his favorites, the 
stars. » 

One little incident illustrates his regard for his wife 
amid the stirring events that heralded his name, and 
betrays the same superstitious faith in omens she 
liherished. Isaby, a celebrated artist, painted a minia- 
ture of Josephine at the time of her marriage, which 
he constantly wore near his heart, in the feverish re- 
pose of his tent, and in the smoke of battle. When 
the war-cloud rolled away from the bed of the slain, 
and the shout of victory drowned the groans of the 
dying, with the pause of joy that succeeded to the con- 
flict, he not unfrequently drew forth this talisman of 
his purest hopes and most rational delight, and then 
hastened to communicate the tidings of conquest to 
the original ; in which the expression once occurs, 
" In the contest I think of France, afterward of 2/0M." 
By some accident it happened that the glass covering 
the picture was broken, and immediatcl}' the presenti- 
ment awakened that Josephine was dead — a solicitude 



112 LIFE OF NAI'OLEON BONAPARTE. 

which was cahncd only with the return of a couriei 
sent to learn if she were among the living. 

The lina) settlement with the emperor's commission- 
ers, thougli long delayed, was at length completed, and 
the treaty of Campo-Formio was signed on the 3d of 
October, 1797. By this act the emperor yielded to 
France Manders and the boundary of the Khine, in- 
cluding the great fortress of Mentz. The variousjiew 
republics of Lombardy were united, and recognized un- 
der the general name of the Cisalpine Eepublic. To 
indemnify j^ftistria for the loss of those territories, the 
fall of Venice ailbrded new means — of which Napoleon 
did not hesitate to propose, nor Aiistria to accept the 
use. France and Austria agi'ced to effect a division of 
the whole territories of the ancient republic. Venice 
herself, and her Italian provinces, were handed over to 
the emperor in lieu of his lost Lombardy ; and the 
French assumed the sovereignty of the Ionian islands 
and Dalmatia. 

At the Te Deum, after the proclamation of the 
peace, the imperial envoy would have taken the place 
prepared for Bonaparte, which was the most eminent 
in the church. The haughty soldier seized his arm 
and drowhim back. " Had your imperial master him- 
self been here," said he, " I should not have forgotten 
that in my person the dignity of France is repre- 
sented." 

When about quitting Miiaafor Rastadt, he presented 
a flag to the Directory by General Joubert, the mes- 
senger appointed for the occasion, on one side of which 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 113 

was the inscription, "To the army of Italy, tlie grate- 
ful country ;" on the other a condensed, yet ambitious 
bulletin of his campaign : "One hundred and fifteen 
thousand prisoners ; one hundred and seventy stand- 
ards ; live hundred and fifty pieces of battering can- 
non ; six hundred pieces of field artillery ; five bridge 
equipages; nine sixty-four gun ships; twelve thirty- 
two gun frigates ; twelve corvettes ; eighteen galleys ; 
armistice with the King of Sardinia ; convention with 
Genoa ; armistice with the Duke of Parma ; armistice 
with the King of Naples ; armistice witli the Pope ; 
preHminarics of Leoben ; convention of Montebello 
with the republic of Genoa; treaty of peace with the 
Emperor at Campo-Formio. 

" Liberty given to the people of Bologna, Ferrara, 
Modena, Massa- Carrara, La Eomagna, Lombardy, 
Bressera, Bormio, the Yalletina, the Genoese, the Im- 
perial Fiefs, the people of the departments of Coreigra, 
of the ^gean Sea, and of Ithaca. ' Sent to Paris all 
the master-pieces of Michael Angelo, of Genercino, of 
Titian, of Paul Veronese, of Correggio, of Albano, of 
Carracei, of Raphael, and of Leonardo da Vinci.'" 

But the Directory were, in return for his success, 
envious of his popularity, which with the word Liberty ^ 
was traversing the valleys, and echoing among the 
snow-crowned tops of the Alps and Apennines; and 
they annoj^ed both himself and Josephine by the sub- 
tle vigilance of spies, whose presence failed to obtain 
from either, treasonable or unlawful aspirations, with 
which to check, hy the interposition of authority, the 



114 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

splendid course of this hero, whose youthful promise 
was that of bearing at length the prize alone in the 
Olympic games of blood, whose honors kings and 
generals had struggled for, and alternately lost and won. 

Leaving Josephine and her family at Milan, he 
reached Mantua, celebrated the funeral of General 
Hoche, attended to the erection of a monument to the 
memory of Virgil, then amid the acclamations of the 
people, marched toward Eastadt. In addition to the 
portrait given incidentally in the preceding narration 
of Napoleon's personal appearance, an additional ex- 
tract from a letter written at this time by an observer 
of the triumphal procession, is interesting, and has an 
air of fidelity in the description : 

" I beheld with deep interest and extreme attention 
that extraordinary man who has performed such great 
deeds, and about whom there is something which 
seems to indicate that his career is not yet terminated. 
I found him very like his portrait, small in stature, 
thin, pale, with the air of fatigue, but not in ill health 
as has been reported. He appeared to me to listen 
with more abstraction than interest, as if occupied 
rather with what he was thinking of, than with what 
was said to him. There is great intelligence in his 
countenance, along with an expression of habitual 
meditation which reveals nothing of what is passing 
within. In that thinking head, in that daring mind, 
it is impoasible not to suppose that some designs are 
engendering which shall have their influence on the 
destinies of Europe." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEOM BONAPARTE. 115 

With the ardent afFection of a noble army, who still 
wept over his farewell ; the enthusiastic admiration of 
thousands in the Cisalpine republic which he created, 
who hoped for a future grand Italian union under a 
democratic constitution ; and attended in his rapid 
course through the hamlets of Switzerland and the 
cities of the plains, with the homage of the people ; he 
reached Eastadt, and appeared before the assembled 
congress of the German powers. 

As only minor points divided the princes, Napoleon, 
after a few days, hastened to Paris. This congress 
continued its sessions from December 9th, 1797, to 
April 7th, 1799, while Napoleon was on a broader 
field of intellectual, civil and military display. For a 
while, he lived in obscurity, waiting the opportunity 
for another evolution in the march of events, to un- 
fold his own stupendous plans. He pursued his 
studies — visited with a select few — and passed with Jo- 
sephine the quiet hours. The Parisians marveled at 
the invisibility of their idol. But policy and taste 
both kept him from the public gaze, in the residence 
which he occupied before he went to Ital}'', and which 
was named in honor of the illustrious tenant, i?we de 
la Vicioire. Upon one of the social occasions, when 
genius and beauty shone around his greater intellect, 
Madame de Stael, the distinguished daughter of M. 
Neckar, inquired, " Whom do you consider the great- 
est of women ?" Napoleon replied, " Her, madame, 
who has borne the greatest number of children." Pronj 



\H\ 1,1 I'' K <»r NAI'OLKON IK) N A I' A K'I'R 

tlii,M c-uMJii^ niljiikd l() licr viinily, hImi hcc.inic, \\\n hitU^r 

('IKUIiy lllllJI (|(Mltll. 

11(1 vviiH HciiHilivo It) IIk- <i|miit'iiM <>l' (iIImtm, liiil, IiIh 
ooiiKc/ioiiH Hii|)ci'i()riLy iimi ii.'i,lui'iil iii(l('|)rii(l('ii<'(<, iiiiuio 
iiiiii I'ltgiirdlcHH oi' it., ii' |ici',s()iial |iI;iiih or iiicliinilioii 
li-il liiiii ill coiiilicl, witli iJin pridt' iiml iJic vii'WHol' 
Mmi iikiiuichI. or iJio nioHi {.'[ifUid iniiidH. lie bcciiiiHi 
vvilJi advimc.iiij^ ;.';n'iitn(!HH, inoi'u (oniiul Jiiid rcnorviid 
ill liin iiiidnioui'Ho with oincorH and (ViciidH, but inaiii- 
l.jiiiKMl a. liiiiiiliar <'.()Iivoi'H(i willi tlai coMiinoTi Holdiory. 
III! knew tlinl. IVoui l.lic loiiiicr, Im iiiiisl. I<mc[) liiiiiMtiH' 
apart, if lio vvoidd (uxilrol tlioiii atid avvd tlwi nndtitiido ; 
wIiiKi ill tli(i al)M('iic(i of (MKiroacIiiiKMit upon liiH realm 
of iiilliic'iic.i' IVoiii tJid luloriii"; noldinr, Iiim ('^(mIoiu with 
thdiii IiimI nil iiir oCHvinpiithy and coin 1(>S(',(M1HIoii whidli 
won iJic <li'('|icr love of Ihd IroopM, and the aihniratioii 
ol'all. Ill hin chuaiioii, he nmieiiibdiiMl 1\h) JewehTM, 
barbiM'rt, and Ihe hmnhh'Ht pciiHiint, who had (h)no him 
HiM'vi<Mi when in Ihi^ army. 

" A HilverHinith, who had <:^iv(Mi him ci'iulit whtm he 
H(>t out t(» Italy, I'or ti (h'liHHiug ciiho worth IH'ty pouudH, 
was mwanhul with all llm huHin(»HH vviiich \\n\ rceom- 
nit'iidaliitn ol' his now illiiHtrioiiH d(>htor could l>rin>r lo 
him ; and, Ixmiij^ (d(ivcr in hiw liadc, liccani(> ultimately, 
niidci- llic palrona^i> of ||i(« iiii|i('i'ial household, one ol' 
ilic \vi>althiest citi/.t>UH of I'liris. Alilllc halU>r, ami 
a cclihhM*, who liiul nerved r>onai)arle when a suhal- 
tci'ii, mi^'ht hav(i risen in the same manner, had their 
skill eipialed tim silviMsmii h's. Not t»veu Napoleon's 
e\ainple could persuade the rarisians to wear ill- 



Lll'IO Ol'' NAI'OI.IOON HON A I'A U'I'K. 11/ 

hIi!I|)('(I Ii;iI,m mill cliiiiiMv 1)i>i)Ih; IhiI. Iir, ill Ihh own 
pciSdii, .'itllii'rdrl, to iJic. IiimI., to Iiis ()ii;.';iii!il coiiiicotioll 
with tluvsd |)oor jiitiHMiis." 

.I.'iniuiry 2(1, 17!)S, Mupolcoii left his rcstirciiu'iit I'or 
tho groat court of I juxoiiihonrg. 'Pho ti'iiaty oC (lairipo- 
T'oniiio vv.'iM ill hin h.'iiidM, mihI tho hour of |iiil)li('. jtro- 
si'iitatioii to tht) Uiroctory had hccii Mppoinlcih 'I'hu 
open area wan huii^'; liko a gor^coiiM tdiit, wilh baii- 
iiL'i'M, and both th<^ rtili'i'S and tho p<'o|)h) waJtcMl iiiipa,- 
tiontly I'oi" hin appi-afin;.';. And when ho (riiiiio, 
" loUowod hy hi.M utiilV, and Hmroiiiid(M| on ;ill ha.iidrt 
with th(5 ti'ophit'H ol' his gloriouH ciuiipai^'iiM, tho oii- 
thiisiaHiii of tho mi/dily iiiultitiah^, to tho far j.M'(iat(ir 
]»ait ol' whioh loH pcr.soM wan, up lo tho moiiKMit, (mi- 
tircly unknown, oiitloap('(| all honiidi-i, and lilh^d tho 
already j(!aloiiH hcaitH of tho diicotocH w itii d;irk pro- 
Bontiineiits. They well knew that tht; Moldit^y return- 
iiig from Italy had Hun|^ and naid throU}j;li ovcry 
vilhif^o, that it wan hi;.';li time to j^et rid ol' tho lawyorrt, 
and rruiko 'the lillle, eorpoijir km;.';. With uiuuiny 
laiarlM did they hear wliiit Mecincd too likt^ an eeJio ol' 
tluH cry, I'rom tli(! aHMemhled leiidiMM ol' opiiiioii in Paris 
and in J^'rancto. The voice of Napoh^on was lor tho 
lir.st tiino lusard in an (^n(M•;.';etie. npeeeh, iiHfuihin;'; all 
tho glorioH that had been ;ieliieved tolho /.riil td' tho 
IVeiieh Holdi(?ry — I'oi- ' tli<! /.doiiouH <'-()nHtitutiou ol' tho 
y(!ar 'iiiiiKi';' - the .s;mie {'•loiioiiH coiiHtilution whieli, in 
tho year r/y/t/, was to I'oeeive the- a/U/i dr ijidcr Troin hi.s 
own hand; and JJarran, aH prcHidiii}^ director, auHwor- 
iii;^ that 'Ntituro had oxhauHtod all \wr poworn in tliv 



118 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

crealion of a Bonaparte,' awoke a new thunder of 
applause." 

Tallejrand introduced liim, and both his address 
and that of Napoleon were brief and brilliant. When 
the hero ceased, the concourse shouted wildly, " Vive 
Napoleon, the conqueror of Italy, the pacificator of 
Europe, the saviour of France." This splendid scene 
of delirious joy, was the homage of the people, and 
the government keenly felt it. He was elected mem- 
ber of the Institute, the distinguished literary establish- 
ment of the capital, in place of Carnot, exiled, and it 
was believed dead, and welcomed with similar demon- 
strations of honor and delight, by the cultivated con- 
stellation of minds gathered within its spacious halls. 
Thenceforth he put on the plain citizen's dress ; and 
years afterward thus referred to the policy involved in 
the position and manners he then assumed: "Man- 
kind are in the end always governed by superiority of 
intellectual qualities, and none are more sensible of 
this than the military profession. Wheu, on my re 
turn from Italy, I assumed the dress of the Institute, 
and associated with men of science, I knew what I was 
doing ; I was sure of not being misunderstood by the 
lowest drummer in the army." Napoleon's economy 
personally, was a singular quality of his character, 
lie might have amassed wealth by millions, but limit- 
ed himself to a moderate allowance. This fact made 
the meanness and jealousy of the Directory the more 
conspicuous and significant to him, when the motion 
was lost in the Chambers, to grant him the estate of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 119 

Chambord. But wlicn the government could use his 
name or presence, they were very willing to concede 
his eminence. On the contrary, he wished to have as 
little to do with them as possible, and secretly despised 
their authority. It was with this mutual distrust 
ripening, that Napoleon refused the invitation to cele- 
brate, with the republican leaders, the 21st of January, 
the anniversary of the violent death of Louis XVI. He 
at last yielded to the urgency of the Directoiy, and 
appeared, greatly to their annoyance, in citizen's dress, 
instead of the general's uniform with which to grace 
and sanction the ceremony he condemned, as the com- 
memoration of a lamentable, if indeed a necessary 
tragedy. His presence was discovered, and the festival 
of death became a triumphal fete to Napoleon. The 
air was rent with shouts, and the populace bowed to 
him, as the forest bends before the wind. 

The next grand scene in the Napoleonic drama, was 
the proposed invasion of England ; the only great 
power openly hostile to the new republic. He disap- 
proved the abrupt termination of negotiations with 
Lord Malmsbury the year before, by the government, 
but was ready to accept the command of the amply re- 
cruited army, and undertake another enterprise, equal 
in grandeur and difiiculty to his genius. Li company 
with a few of his ablest generals, he immediately com- 
menced a survey of the coast opposite England. The 
result was the decision not to venture upon the doubt- 
ful, and if unsuccessful, fatal invasion of a mighty and 
patriotic army on their own soil. To Bourrienne, who 



120 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

inquired if the plan was possible, be replied, " No ! it 
is too btizardoiis. I will not undertake it. I will not 
risk on such a stake our bcautifal France." 

He then turned bis thoughts to an indirect blow 
upon his haughty foe, bj a campaign to Egypt, which 
woukl, if victorious, atone for the loss of colonies in the 
West Indies, and embarrass England in her trade with 
southern Asia. 

The expedition to Egypt was finally decided upon 
by the Directory, who were willing to place the envied 
general in a command that would remove him to a 
dangerous climate, and perhaps rid them altogether of 
his dreaded pre-eminence. He received his appoint- 
ment April 12th, 1798, and with a troop of a hundred 
savans, to gather antiquarian embellishments for the 
gallery of the Louvre, which he had already adorned 
by his contributions from the cabinets of Italy, and 
also to make scientific researches, he hastened to Tou- 
lon to join his assembled army and magnificent fleet. 

His own ambitious views are finely expressed in his 
own words: " They do not long preserve at Paris the 
remembrance of any thing. If I remain long unem- 
ployed, I am undone. The renown of one in this great 
Babylon speedily supplants that of another. If I am 
seen three times at the opera, 1 shall no longer be an 
object of curiosity. I am determined not to remain in 
Paris, There is nothing here to be accomplished. 
Every thing here passes awa3% My glory is declining. 
The little corner of Europe is too small to supply it. 
We must go to the East. All great men of the world 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 121 

have there acquired their celebrity." He also said, 
"Europe presents no field for glorious exploits; 
no great empires or revolutions are found but in the 
East, where there are six hundred millions of men." 

Who can question the inspiration of an insatiate 
ambition in the heart that uttered such motives of con- 
quest? To feel this suggestion, we have only to im- 
agine them falling from the lips of Washington I It is 
true, Napoleon loved France ; but clearly he regarded 
her fame inseparable from his own, and no sacrifice too 
great to secure both. A battalion of brave soldiers, 
or a single loving heart, offered no barrier to success ; 
he would sooner drain a goblet of tears he made to 
flow, than swerve from a purpose involving his glory 
This conflict of powers on the war-plain of the human 
soul, is discernible in every phase of his history. 

" The attention of England was still riveted on the 
coasts of Normandy and Picardy, between which and 
Paris Bonaparte studiously divided his presence — 
while it was on the borders of the Mediterranean that 
the ships and the troops really destined for action 
were assembling. 

" Bonaparte, having rifled the cabinets and galleries 
of the Italian princes, was resolved not to lose the op- 
portunity of appropriating some of the richest anti- 
quarian treasures of Egypt ; nor was it likely that he 
should undervalue the opportunities which his expe- 
dition might afford of extending the boundaries of 
science, by careful observation of natural phenomena. 

He drew together therefore a body of eminent artists 

C 



122 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

and connoisseurs, under the direction of Monge, who 
had manitged his Italian collections. It was perhaps 
the first time that a troop of savans (there were one 
hundred of them) formed part of the staff of an invad- 
ing army. 

" The various squadrons of the French fleet were 
now assembled at Toulon in readiness for departure. 
As soon as Bonaparte arrived he called his array to- 
gether and harangued them. * Rome,' he said, ' com- 
bated Carthage by sea as well as land ; and England 
was the Carthage of France. — ^He was come to lead 
them, in the name of the goddess of Liberty, across 
mighty seas, and into remote regions, where their valor 
might achieve such glory and such wealth as could 
nev^r be looked for beneath the cold heavens of the 
"West. The meanest of his soldiers should receive seven 
acres of land;' — ivhere he mentioned not. His pro- 
mises had not hitherto been vain. The soldiery heard 
him with joy, and prepared to obey with alacnt3^ 

" The English government, meanwhile,^although they 
had no suspicion of the leal destination of the arma- 
ment, had not failed to observe what was passing in 
Toulon. They had sent a considerable reinforcement 
to Nelson, who then commanded on the Mediterranean 
station; and he, at the moment when Bonaparte 
reached Toulon, was cruising within sight of the port 
Napoleon well knew, that to embark in the presence 
of Nelson would be to rush into the jaws of ruin ; and 
waited until some accident should relieve him from 
this terrible watcher. On the evening of tlic 19th 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 123 

Mn\', fortune favored him. A violent gale drove the 
English off the coast, and disabled some ships so much 
that Nelson was obliged to go into the harbors of Sar- 
dinia to have them repaired. The French general in- 
stantly commanded the embarkation of all his troops ; 
and as the last of them got on board, the sun rose on 
the mighty armament : it was one of those dazzling 
suns which the soldiery delighted afterward to call 
' the suns of Napoleon.' " 

For six leagues along the Mediterranean shore, the 
grand armament in the form of a semicircle, unfurled 
its thousand snowy wings, and threw upon the breeze 
its gay streamers ; while the uniform of forty thousand 
"picked soldiers," reflected the unclouded beams of 
the ascending orb. Josephine, who accompanied tho 
General-in-chief to Toulon, extorting a promise of 
permission to follow soon his fortunes in the East, 
gazed with a full heart upon the dazzling pageant. 
Amid all the magnificence of the spectacle, her eye 
followed alone the I'Orient, which bore a husband 
and son, whose farewell embrace still thrilled her sen- 
sitive frame, till its tall mast became a speck in the 
distance, and vanished like departing hope from her 
tearful gaze, beneath the horizon's rim. Yet there was 
the possibility of meeting her husband in accordance 
with the assurance given, among the ruihs of Memphis 
and Thebes, which restored the dreams of a calmer, 
brighter future. She had a soul that soared like the 
skylark when the storm is past, and breathed the gen- 
tlest music of love, in the ear of whoever would listen 



124 LIFE OF NAPOLEO^ BONAPARTE. 

She retired to Plombieres, celebrated for its springs, 
whose waters it was thought might give that tone of 
perfect health to her system, Napoleon ambitiously 
desired for the transmissiou of his accumulating honors, 
and which she sought ardently for his sake. It was 
arranged that she should remain there until the arrival 
of the frigate from Egypt to convey her thither. 

June 14th, the fleet reached the island of Malta. The 
once brave knights of St. John, soon yielded to the 
ordnance of Napoleon, and opened the gates of the 
renowned fortress. Napoleon with his usually laconic 
style, wrote to Joseph after the event : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Head-quarters, Malta, Ma*y 29, 1798. 
" General Baraguay d'Hilliers is going to Paris. Ho 
was unwell. I use him to carry parcels and flags. I 
hear nothing from you about Eire or Burgundy.* I 
write to my wife to come out to me. Be kind to her 
if she is near you. My health is good. Malta cost 
us a cannonade of two days ; it is the strongest place 
in Europe. I leave Vaubois there. I did not touch 
Corsica. I have had no French news for a month. 
We write by a ship of war." 

In the eastward sailing of the invading army, they 
touched at Candia, to obtain supplies ; and by the cir- 
cuitous route, escaped the pursuit of Nelson, who miss- 
ing the French fleet in the harbor of Tculon, had 

y 

* Estates ho wished Joseph to purchase. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 125 

taken the direct course toward Alexandria, where he 
suspected Napoleon might next display his troops. 
Hearing of Nelson's design, he determined to change 
his course to another port. But the English admiral, 
finding no vessels in the bay of Alexandria, imme- 
diately sailed to Ehodes, and thence to Syracuse, if 
possible to intercept his enemy. 

July 1st, the French vessels were in the destined 
harbor, tossing amid the waves of a tremendous gale. 
Just then a sail appeared in the haze of distance. 
Napoleon exclaimed, " Fortune, I ask but six hours 
more — wilt thou refuse them ?" It was a false alarm, 
and the troops disembarked ; the noble horses swim-% 
ming to the shore, while many a poor soldier went 
down to sleep beneath the waters. 

Egypt was taken by surprise. ' Her two hundred 
thousand Copts, or descendants of the ancient race of 
the land, the Arabs who were the dominant people in 
numbers, the Janizaries or Turks, and the wild, fierce 
Mamelukes, composed the two and a half millions to be 
conquered. They were at peace with France, but their 
alliance with England, and the blessings of conquest 
by French arms, were the pretext of this expedition. 
"While the battalions of Napoleon formed in the order 
of attack, at Marabout, a mile and a half from Alex- 
andria, where they landed, the intelligence preceded 
their march, and the Turks rallied in haste for the 
defense of their city. The gates were closed, and a 
desperate conflict began. The walls were scaled, and 
the French rushed impetuously and unsparingly upon 



t26 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 

,he furious Mamelukes. With a short and terrific car- 
nage, in which the French loss was small, Napoleon 
planted the tricolor on the crumbling walls of the city. 
His apology for the merciless havoc of this first conflict, 
as in other instances of sanguinary conquest, was the 
necessity of making at the outset an impression of his 
■•esistless force, which should spread a panic among his 
foes. His ordinary rule of action, it is true, was more 
noble ; and is disclosed in the general order to the 
army, which at the same time declares his own unset- 
tled and latitudinarian views of religious truth and 
obligation : 

" The people with whom we are about to live, are 
Mahometans: the first article of their faith is. There is 
no Ood hut God^ and Mahomet is his prophet. Do not 
contradict them: deal with them as you have done 
with the Jews and the Italians. Eespect their muftis 
and imans, as you have done by the rabbins and the 
bishops elsewhere. * * * The Eoman legions protected 
all religions. You will find here usages different from 
those of Europe : you must accustom yourselves to 
them. These people treat their women differently 
from us ; but in all countries, he who violates is a mon- 
ster ; pillage enriches only afew; it dishonors us, destroys 
our resources, and makes those enemies whom it is our 
interest to havs for friends." 

To the people of Egypt he said : " They will tell 
you that I am come to destroy your religion ; believe 
them not: answer that I am come to restore your 
rights, to punish the usurpers, and that I respect, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 127 

more tban the Mamelukes ever did, God, bis prophet, 
and the Koran. Sheiks and imans, assure the people 
that we also are true Mussulmans. Is it not we that 
have ruined the Pope and the knights of Malta? 
Thrice happy they who shall be with us ! Wo to 
them that take up arms for the Mamelukes ! they shall 
perish I" Leaving three thousand men to hold Alex- 
andria, he dispatched a flotilla on the Nile, with the 
munitions of war, to meet the main army at a point 
fifty miles from Cairo, between which and himself, lay 
sixty miles of burning sands. 

On the 6th of July, the regiments filed away into 
the arid desert, whose furnace heat was filled with tor- 
menting insects, and on whose glowing plain sparkled 
no cooling fountains. Murat and Lannes dashed their 
cockades beneath their blistering feet, and. many a poor 
soldier laid him down to gasp and die. The unmoist* 
encd brow, unshrinking glance of a seer, and the 
majestic step of a king, which marked the leader of that 
feverish host, alone kept the reeling ranks unbroken. 

Flying groups of Arab horsemen picked up the 
lingering soldier, and him who left the line of march 
for a moment. 

After a skirmish at Chebreis, and an attack on the 
flotilla, July 21, the Pyramids rose upon their strain- 
ing vision. " While every eye was fixed on these 
hoary monuments of the past, they gained the brow of 
a gentle eminence, and saw at length spread out be- 
fore them the vast army of the beys, their right posted 
on an intrenched camp by the Nile, their center and 



128 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

left composed of that brilliant cavalry with which 
they were by this time acquainted. Napoleon, riding 
forward to reconnoitre, perceived that the guns on the 
entrenched camp were not provided with carriages ; 
and instantly decided on his plan of attack. He pre- 
pared to throw his force on the left, where the guns 
could not be available. Mourad Bey, who commanded 
in chief, speedily penetrated his design ; and the Mame- 
lukes advanced gallantly to the encounter. ' Sold- 
iers/ said Napoleon, 'from the summit of yonder 
pyramids forty ages behold you ;' and the battle began. 

" The French formed into separate squares, and await- 
ed the assault of the Mamelukes. These came on with 
impetuous speed and wild cries, and practiced every 
means to force their passage into the serried ranks of 
their new opponents. They rushed on the line of 
bayonets, backed their horses upon them, and at last 
maddened by the firmness which they could not shake, 
dashed their pistols and carabines into the faces of the 
men. Nothing could move the French : the bayonet 
and the continued roll of musketry by degrees thinned 
the host around them ; and Bonaparte at last advanced. 
Such were the confusion and terror of the enemy when 
he came near the camp, that they abandoned their 
works, and flung themselves by hundreds into the 
Nile. The carnage was jDrodigious. Multitudes more 
were drowned. Mourad and a remnant of his Mame- 
lukes retreated on Upper Egypt. Cairo surrendered : 
Lower Egypt was conquered." 

Such was the battle of the Pyramids. It smote with 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 129 

fear tlie tribes and nations that surrounded and spread 
away from the Egyptian capital, even beyond the 
boundaries of Africa. 

Napoleon, who had won by the fiery onset of his 
troops, the title of Sultan Kebir, or King of Fire, and 
in less than a month had gained the sovereignty of 
Egypt, was an unhappy man. False rumors of the in- 
fidelity of Josephine had reached him. He was be- 
coming weary of the conqueror's laurels, and evidently 
had hours of despondency amid the grand and awful 
game of destiny his youthful hand was playing. He 
thus wrote emotions known to not one of all his 
legions, in the correspondence with his elder brother : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Caiko, July 25, 1798. 
"You will see in the newspapers the result of our 
battles and the conquest of Egypt, where we found 
resistance enough to add a leaf to the laurels of this 
army. Egypt is the richest country in the world for 
wheat, rice, pulse, and meal. Nothing can be more 
barbarous. There is no money, even to pay the 
troops. I may be in France in two months. I reQom* 
mend my interests to you. I have much domestic 
distress. Your friendship is very dear to me. To 
become a misanthropist I have only to lose it, and find 
that you betray me. That every different feeling to- 
wards the same person should be united in one heart 
is very painful.* 

* The suspicions of Josephine's honor, hinted at in this remarkable 

6* 



130 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

" Let me liavc on mj arrival a villa near Paris or 
in Burgundy. I intend to shut myself up there for 
the winter. I am tired of human natare. I want soli- 
tude and isolation. Greatness fatigues me ; feeling ia 
dried up. At twenty-nine glory has become flat. I 
have exhausted everything. I have no refuge but pure 
selfishness. I shall retain my house, and let no one else 
occupy it. I have not more than enough to live on. 
Adieu, my only friend. I have never been unjust to 
you, as you must admit, though I may have wished to 
be so . You understand me. Love to your wife and 
to Jerome." 

The soldiers of the conqueror, whose heart was cor- 
roded with ennui, meanwhile rioted on the splendid 
spoils of the slain Mamelukes^ and the gathered luxu- 
ries in the deserted harems and gardens of the chiefs. 
The savans did not forget their mission among the 
pyramids and other monuments of antiquity. Napo- 
leon entered upon extensive plans of improvement to 
the country. Canals were opened, which neglect had 
closed, and means devised to develop the. resources of 
Egypt. 

During these events, Nelson had returned from his 
search, to the coast, where lay at anchor the hunted 
fleet. And on the 1st of August, ten days after the 
victory under the shadow of the pyramids, the English 

letter, disturbed Napoleon daring the whole of his Egyptian campaiga 
BouiTieune describes his distress and his plans of divorce six month* 
aflerwards, in consequence of some information from Junot. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 181 

directed their prows toward the curve of water between 
the enemy and the shore — a mode of attack Admiral 
Brueyes deemed impossible, on account of his proxi- 
mity to the land. Nelson's plan was a great stroke of 
naval science ; it was to bring his adversary between 
his lines of cannonade, and embrace them in his 
divided fleet, whose greeting would be the volcanic 
fires of death. For twenty-four hours the battle raged, 
with one awful interlude at midnight, Avhen the 
I'Orient blew up, shaking like a subterranean earth- 
quake, the land and sea. Brueyes perished; three 
thousand men were slain, and five thousand taken 
prisoners ; and two riddled ships alone escaped to pro- 
claim the defeat of Aboukir. 

The French fleet was annihilated; and with a few 
more frigates. Nelson might have ■ entered the harbor 
of Alexandria and taken from the enemy their stores. 
As it was, he blockaded the coast, and made Napoleon 
an involuntary exile — with no resources but his arms, 
and the savage country he had invaded. When the 
intelligence reached him, it extorted a sigh, and with 
unruffled dignity and composure, he remarked, "To 
France the fates have decreed the empire of the land 
— to England that of the sea." He then commenced 
the reconstruction of the government — established 
councils — maintained law, order, and justice ; and soon 
commanded the homage, respect, and admiration of 
the Moslem. That a new impulse was given to agri- 
culture, education, and internal improvements, is un- 
deniable. It alleviates the horrors of devastating 



132 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BON-APARTE. 

conquest, to know that Napoleon always attempted 
the elevation and progress of a conquered people. 
But this pleasant view of his triumphs, does not change 
the motives he avowed in the beginning of the Egypt- 
ian cjvmpaign — the pursuit of glory — the attainment of 
unrivaled power and renown, 

He was not a monster of cruelty — a ruthless invader 
— against whom the kings of a continent conspired in 
righteous warfare of self defence ; nor was he a Chris- 
tian hero — a republican patriot, who regarded human 
life and destiny for two worlds, with sacred interest 
and philanthropic sympathy. He was as often the 
assailed as the aggressor, and monarchs who opposed 
him, cared more for their crowns and empire, than for 
the peace and freedom of Europe. This was apparent 
in the joy that spread over the despotic realms, when 
the tidings of the "Battle of the Nile" fell on the ears 
of the haughty rulers of the servile masses. 

Though the country was virtually conquered, the 
Mamelukes were not all submissive. Mourad Bej', 
with thousands' of his horsemen, was in upper Egypt. 
Dessaix went there, and with bloody defeats sub- 
dued them ; while Napoleon was planning in thought, 
and- preparing his strength to beat back the threatened 
armies of England and Turkey. 

Meanwhile he made an excursion to the Eed sea, to 
survey the route of a proposed canal to connect the 
Mediterranean with its waters, and provide a defense 
on that boundary of Egypt against the Ottomans. 
Upon one occasion, with a select company, he ventured 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 133 

at low tide upon the sand-flats spreading toward the 
snores of Asia, where, tradition has it, the Hebrews 
passed over in their exodus from Egypt. Savarj, who 
was one of the company, relates the result : 

" The night overtook us ; the waters began to rise 
around us ; the guard in advance exclaimed that their 
horses were swimming. Bonaparte saved us all by 
one of those simple expedients which occur to an im- 
perturbable mind. Placing himself in the centre, he 
bade all the rest form a circle round him, and then 
ride on, each man in a separate direction, and each 
man to halt as soon as he found his horse swimming. 
The man whose horse continued to march the last, 
was sure, he said, to be in the right direction : him 
accordingly we all followed, and reached Suez at two 
in the morning in safety, though so rapidly had the 
tide advanced, that the water was at the poitrels of our 
horses ere we made the land." 

Napoleon, upon his return to Cairo, with intelli- 
gence confirming the tidings of the allied forces sweep- 
ing through the Bosphorus and the Straits of Gibraltar, 
to concentrate their power upon the African coast, 
marched with ten thousand picked soldiers towaid 
Syria, to attack the Turkish armament there, before 
the fleet should arrive to strengthen their arms. He 
crossed the intervening desert, and, "took possession 
of the fortress El-Arish, in February, whose garrison, 
after a vigorous assault, capitulated on condition that 
they should be permitted to retreat into Syria, pledg- 
ing their parole not to serve again during the war, 



134 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

Pursuing his march, be took Gazah, that ancient city 
of the Phihstincs without opposition ; but at Jaffa, the 
Joppa of holy writ, the Turks made a resolute defense. 
The "walls were carried by storm ; three thousand 
Turks died with arms in their hands, and the town 
was given up during three hours to the fury of the 
French soldiery — who never, as Napoleon confessed, 
availed themselves of the license of war more savagely 
than on this occasion." 

Twelve hundred of these desperate men, who poured 
down their fire from every window of a large edifice, 
in which they had taken shelter, were the last to sur- 
render. They proved to be the Turks who were re- 
leased at El-Arish, and had been faithless to their 
pledge of neutrality. These, after consultation, and 
repeated murmurs of the enraged troops at the delay, 
were led forth under General Bon among the sand-hills, 
and formed into squares. The blazing musketry soon 
mowed them down, and their bones whiten the sands 
where they fell. Much has been said of this slaughter, 
in condemnation of Napoleon. It was a fearful ex- 
termination, but under the circumstances, only an 
incident in the general warfare of invasion. The 
murder of a few savage soldiers, when to leave a guard 
for their safe keeping was impossible, and their faith- 
lessness rendered any other disposal of them perilous, 
while an indignant army demanded the sacrifice, was 
comparatively a trivial afiliir. The question is the 
right and justice of the general havoc of this war of 
conquest, which in all the forms of fiercest carnage 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 135 

and suffering, lined the path of victorj with heaps of 
the dead. To anticipate providence, and force reform, 
or cripple an allied enemy by such an awful waste of 
human life, and unrecorded agonies, is a kind of phi- 
lanthropy and patriotism, which the splendor of 
genius cannot elevate above the range of an ambition, 
that disguises under the name of war, the wholesale 
murder of mankind. 

At this date, the middle of March, 1798, the plague 
broke out in the French army in all its horrors. The 
sufferers grew despairing — the healthy shrunk from 
the couch of pain — and Napoleon himself went to the 
relief of the grateful soldier. He walked without an 
emotion, or at least sign of fear among the dying and 
the dead in the hospitals, and encouraged the victims 
to hope on, and be of good courage. Such scenes ex- 
hibit the manly nature of Bonaparte, whoso apparent 
cruelty was the unflinching, iron will, which without 
religious control, and devoted to military glory, did 
not turn aside for a barrier of snowy summits, nor 
when the price of victory was a hecatomb of dead 
men. 

A formidable resistance, it was known, would be 
made by the ferocious Achmet, pasha of Syria, at 
Acre, renowned in the annals of the crusades. This 
bold chief spurned all inducements offered by Napo- 
leon, to abandon the Porte, and form an independent 
province under the protection of France; and sent 
back the first messenger from the republican invader. 
The second soldier dispatched to Achmet, was slaia 



136 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

Napoleon prepared to lead his exasperated troops 
against the fortified city, before which, Sir Sidney 
Smith, to whom, while cruising in the Levant, the 
pasha had applied for aid, appeared with two British 
ships of the line. He unexpectedly captured on the 
passage, at Mount Carmel, the French flotilla, with the 
weapons of siege — a most serious loss to Napoleon. 
In addition to these unpromising events. Colonel Phil- 
lippeaux, a classmate at Brienne, but a royalist, con- 
ducted with skill and energy the plan of defense. 

March 18th, Napoleon opened the trenches. Foi 
ten days he continued the ineffectual assault, when a 
breach was made, into which the French rushed. The 
garrison, who rallied after a momentary defeat which 
so enraged the daring Djezzar, who commanded, that 
he hurled his pistols at the heads of his swaying 
columns, swept the besiegers back. 

Then darkened on the horizon an army of thirty 
thousand Mussulmen, from the mountains of Samaria, 
to complete the defense of Acre. At Mount Tabor, 
April 16th, Kleber looked suddenly down upon the 
Turkish army, encamped on the plains' of Palestine. 
In the unclouded sunrise, it was a splendid pageant. 
A shout of rage and defiance rose from the Turkish 
battalions. After a bloody conflict, threatening the 
extinction of Kleber's band, Napoleon appeared to the 
rescue, and soon the turbaned Turks on their flying 
chargers were hastening from the ensanguined field. 
The dashing Murat, ever conspicuous and ostentatious 
in his unrivalled bravery, was there, his white plume 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 137 

Streaming through the thickest cloud of battle. And 
it is not strange, that his romantic spirit caught the in- 
fluence of the sacred place, beneath the shadow of a 
mount whereon had bowed the prophet and the Son 
of God. He said afterward, " In the hottest of this 
terrible fight I thought of Christ, and of his transfigu- 
ration upon this very spot, two thousand years ago, 
and the reflection inspired me with tenfold courage 
and strength." Napoleon returned to the siege of 
Acre, on the issue of which hinged the success of his 
expedition. He said to Bourrienne, "The fate of the 
East depends upon the capture of Acre. That is the 
key of Constantinople or of India. If we succeed in 
taking this paltry town, I shall obtain the treasures of 
the pasha, and arms for three hundred thousand men." 
Day after day, the murderous work went on ; and ex- 
j)losions, putrefaction, and disease, added their ter- 
rors to the protracted conflict. Sir Sidney Smith dis- 
played skill and courage in the unyielding strength of 
his resistance. When sixty days had passed, making 
a charnel-house and hospital of fortress and tent, the 
repeated assaults, and momentary promise of victory, 
were followed by retreat, leaving the noblest officers 
and men in the French battalions ghastly forms of 
blackened corruption. Just then a Turkish fleet with 
twelve thousand men, appeared in the sea-ward hori- 
zon, moving down upon Acre, to reinforce the exult- 
ing Djezzar, Napoleon saw the case was hopeless. 
He must yield to that destiny which he worshiped 
as a blind, resistless force bearing him onward, whether 



138 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

to victory or defeat, and for the first time abandon by 
retreat the crimson field of war. May 21st, 1799, 
keeping up the fire of assault to deceive his foes, he 
led his army toward Jaffa. The following was his 
address to the troops : " Soldiers ! you have traversed 
the desert which separates Asia from Africa, with the 
rapidity of an Arab force. The army which was on 
its way to invade Egypt is destroyed. You have 
taken its general, its field artillery, camels, and bag- 
gage. You have captured all the fortified posts which 
secure the wells of the desert. You have dispersed at 
Mount Tabor, those swarms of brigands collected from 
all parts of Asia, hoping to share the plunder of Egypt. 
The thirty ships which, twelve days ago, you saw en- 
ter the port of Acre, were destined for an attack upon 
Alexandria. But you compelled them to hasten to the 
relief of Acre. Several of their standards will contri- 
bute to adorn your triumphal entry into Egypt, Alter 
having maintained the war, with a handful of men, 
during three months in the heart of Syria, taken forty 
jiieces of cannon, fifty stands of colors, six thousand 
prisoners, and captured or destroyed the fortifications 
of Gaza, Jaffa, and Acre, we prepare to return to 
Egypt, where, by a threatened invasion, our presence 
is imperiously demanded. A few days longer might 
give you the hope of taking the pasha in his palace ; 
but at this season, the castle of Acre is not worth the 
loss of three days, nor the loss of those brave soldiers 
who would consequently fall, and who are necessary 
for more essential service. Soldiers 1 we have yet a 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 139 

toilsome and a perilous task to perform. After hav- 
ing by this campaign secured ourselves from attacks 
from the eastward, it will perhaps be necessary to re- 
pel efforts which may be made from the west." 

From Jaffa, Napoleon marched directly to Egypt. 
The sickening scenes of suffering and death, before de- 
scribed, in their passage over the desert-sands, were 
renewed. And no exhibition of the Satanic and brutal 
elements of war, besides the murderous strife, was ever 
more shocking than that transit across the burning 
plain. 

" "When a comrade, after quitting his ranks, being 
stimulated by the despair of falling into the hands of 
the Turks or Arabs, yet once again reared himself 
from the burning sand, and made a last attempt to 
stagger after the column, his painful and ineffectual 
efforts furnished matter for military merriment. ' He 
is drunk,' said one ; ' his march will not be a long 
one,' answered another ; and when he once more sank 
helpless and hopeless, a third remarked, ' our friend 
has at length taken up his quarters.' It is not to be 
omitted, that Napoleon did, on this occasion, all that 
became his situation. He yielded his last horse to the 
service of the moving hospital ; and walked on foot, 
by the side of the sick, cheering them by his eye and 
his voice, and exhibiting to all the soldiery, the ex- 
ample at once of endurance and of compassion." 

Reaching Cairo, he again gave his attention to the 
political interests of the conquered land of the ancient 
Pharaohs. But while his capacious mind was planning 



140 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

governmental bases for the new order of things, 
rumors of the descent of the bejs of the Upper Nile, 
and of the foreign allies upon the coast at or near 
Alexandria. The oriental sky thus darkened above 
him, and his anxious thoughts turned toward Fiance, 
from which for several months he had received no 
tidings. 

It was an evening in July, when walking beneath 
the shadow of tlie Pyramids, he descried a horseman 
flying over the plain. He proved to be an Arab, vith 
dispatches from Alexandria. Eighteen thousand 
Turks had landed there ; the combined fleets of Eussia, 
Turkey, and England, were in the bay, and Mourad 
Bey with a Mameluke force from Upper Egypt, was 
on the march thither. Leaving Dessaix in command 
of Cairo, he descended the Nile with rapid flight, and 
on the 25th of July, at nightfall, reached the enemy, 
already in possession of Aboukir. Looking toward 
the extended camp of his foes. Napoleon remarked to 
Murat, " Go how it will, the battle to-morrow will de- 
cide the fate of the world!" " Of this army, at least," 
replied Murat ; " but the Turks have no cavalry, and 
if ever infantry were charged to the teeth by horse, 
they shall be so by mine." 

The morning dawned, and the strife began. The 
outposts yielded to the valor of the French, but the 
batteries and cannonade of the ships near the shore 
checked their advance. Eout might have followed 
but for the eagerness of the Turks to despoil and maim 
the troops that fell before them. Murat improved the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 141 

moment, and charging their main body in flank with 
his furious and fearless cavalry, spread disorder in 
their ranks, while Napoleon swept with his infantry 
through the entrenchments. Then the unsparing 
massacre became .universal. It was personal combat, 
till the terrified Turks turned from the storm of death, 
which the more rapid fire of the French poured upon 
their decimated ranks. They plunged by thousands 
headlong into the sea, until the waters were covered 
with floating turbans, and red with blood. Six 
thousand surrendered unconditionally, and twelve 
tliousand perished on land and in the waters of the 
Mediterranean. When the daring Murat, who dashed 
into the Turkish camp, and with a stroke of his sword 
disabled Mustapha Pacha, the general, brought the 
haughty Turk to Napoleon, the victor said, " It has 
been your fate to lose this day ; but I will take care 
to inform the Sultan of the courage with which you 
have contested it." " Spare thyself that trouble," 
answered the proud pacha, " my master knows me 
better than thou." 

The defeat was complete, and the triumph one of 
the most wonderful in the annals of war. Napoleon, 
on the 10th of August, was again in Cairo. His pur- 
pose of leaving Egypt in the care of subordinates, and 
embarking for France, was maturing. Sir Sidney 
Smith, either as an act of courtesy or to annoy his ad- 
versary, sent Napoleon a file of English papers. He 
learned from them the loss of Ital}'' — the uprising in 
Rome, which threatened the life of Joseph — the inva- 



142 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

sions, under the imbecile Directory, of Switzerland and. 
Sardinia, to establisli republics after their model — • 
arousing the indignation of the more intelligent repub- 
licans, the ro^'alists, and Catholics. These with many 
other discordant elements, and imminent perils to 
France, decided Napoleon to hasten to its coast. His 
plan was communicated only to Bourrienne, Berthier, 
and Gantheaume; the latter immediately got ready 
the frigates, and two smaller vessels at Alexandria. 
Departing from Cairo, with the pretext of an explora- 
tion down the Nile, with his selected band of friends, 
he crossed the desert, and arrived at Alexandria, Au- 
gust 22d. Then he apprised the company of his de- 
sign to return to France ; and with acclamation they 
received the announcement. Soon after, the little 
fleet, the flying representative of the gallant squad* 
ron which a few months before sailed toward that 
shore, was gliding over the blue waves of the same 
unchanging sea. The usual converse — ^tbe intellect- 
ual entertainments the master spirit always gave — • 
and other incidents of a voyage — ^transpired. We 
glance onward to the gorgeous capital to which Na- 
poleon's restless thoughts were ever turning, from the 
deck of his fugitive ship. 

Gohier, President of the Directory, on the 9th of 
October, 1799, gave a splendid levee, embracing the 
noble and the beautiful of the capital. Josephine was 
a guest, though more a spectator than participant in 
the festivity of the brilliant occasion. The gifted be- 
ing to whom her tides of feeling in their deepest chan* 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 143 

nel, however dark or shining their surface — however 
black or beaming the skies above — were as obedient 
as the sea to the changeful moon, was a wanderer 
among the dead and dying of his unrivaled army, or 
perhaps gazing in vain upon the wide waters for a 
friendly bark to bear him away. The ample enter- 
tainment went forward — the viands disappeared, and 
the wine-cup became the inspiration of wit, and the 
pledge of affection. But while the converse of excited 
genius rang out in sparkling repartee, and beauty 
smiled, suddenly the eye of Gohier was arrested by a 
telegraphic line, which checked his gayety, and held 
the throng in suspense. With a serious air, he re- 
peated the announcement — ^^ Bonaparte landed this 
morning at Frejus.^^ The strange silence of that star- 
tled assembly, was no less marked than when the first 
peal of a rising storm and its shadows cast before, 
hushes into stillness the amphitheatre of nature, which 
rang with the music and glee of spring-time. 

There was a blending of vague apprehension, and 
wonder, and hope. The multitude, during his former 
campaigns, had begun to regard the rapid and almost 
miraculous exertions of that intellect, embodied in ac- 
tion that dwarfed all the great of antiquity into com- 
mon men, with mysterious awe ; and his unexpected 
appearance on the theater he seemed to have deserted 
and lost, sent a wave of surprise and agitation over 
these rejoicing hearts, and with the morning light c rer 
millions more. 

Josephine rose upon hearing the intelligence, and 



144 LIFE or NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

with suppressed emotion whispered an adieu to those 
about her, and retired. Her design was instantly 
formed of meeting him on his way to Paris ; not only 
to hail his return_, but efface from his mind a doubt of 
her fidelity, before it was graven more deeply by the 
enmity of those who envied her influence, and would 
rob her of her honors. Accompanied by Hortense, or 
as is af&rmed by some writers, Louis Bonaparte, she 
hastened with the speed of a courier, toward Lyons. 
But the General had avoided the direct route she 
traveled, and passed her of course without the knowl- 
edge of either. Alarmed, she flew with all possible 
Bpeed to the metropolis ; but she was too late — the hour 
of midnight which brought her to their city residence 
was one of desolating sorrow. Napoleon had found 
his home a solitude, and the impression, this unac- 
countable desertion, relieved only by the gathering 
members of the Bonaparte family, made upon his spirit 
stained with jealousy, and worn by the sufferings of 
his sad adventures, was fearful, and never forgotten. 
It is not strange the sobbing wife was sent without re- 
cognition to her apartment, to weep away the night in 
agony. There may be some apology for him in the 
fact that society in decay had weakened his faith in the 
morality of the elite^ and his thorough knowledge of 
men rendered him sceptical whenever self-interest was 
the stake, with regard to apparent innocence, or cir- 
cumstantial evidence against deeds which his own ex- 
perience assured him might tarnish the escutcheon of 
the renowned. His estimate therefore of human nature 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 145 

was not liigh, for he found it a pliable thing beneath 
his molding hand, and the multitude were his crea- 
tures, playing their part in his elevation to disguised 
royalty ; which like a distant summit robed with cloud, 
was mistaken for something that they admired, and 
toward which they were impatiently struggling, to 
find protection and repose. 

He sternly refused to see Josephine, who, with a 
bosom bleeding, waited the result of her children's elo- 
quence and tears. Two long, dreary days wore away 
— the wrathful deep of a mighty mind was tranquil 
again — and the gentle words of Hortense, and her 
swimming eye, with the manly yet touching entreaty 
of Eugene, restored the wonted tenderness of his better 
moods. He stole into her room, and found the wife 
of his youth in the attitude of inconsolable grief. Lean- 
ing upon the table, her face was buried in her hands — 
the warm tears were dropping from her delicate fingers 
upon the letters he had written in the fulness of affec- 
tion, while convulsive sobs alone disturbed the stillness. 
He gazed a moment, and with quivering lip, murmured 
" Josephine r She looked up with her soul in the ex- 
pression, and reading in his pale countenance the evi- 
dence of a milder frame, said sweetly, "mon amif^ — 
the familiar language of love. He silently extended 
his hand, and she was once more welcomed to the em- 
brace and confidence of Napoleon. 

He now lived for the most part in retirement ; di- 
viding the hours between domestic society, and that 
profound contemplation with which he always matured 



146 LIFE OF NAPOLEON liONAPAllTE. 

his magnificent schemes. He valued, and cheerfully 
acknowledged the discriminating judgment and obser- 
vation of Josephine, both during his absence in Egypt, 
and while enjoying that prelude to the eventful changes 
■which soon after paved his way to a throne. 

He found France retrograding in every respect. 
The Congress of Eastadt had resulted in the assassina- 
tion of French j^lenipotentiaries, and open war. Su- 
warrow with his battalions had overswept Italy, and 
taken from him his miniature republics. On nearly all 
of the national boundaries the foe hung menacingly, 
glorying over the spoils of victory, and to complete 
the discord and danger, the Directory, distracted by 
the conflict of royalty with extreme republicanism, was 
the centralization of anarchy and imbecility rather 
than of power and dignity. There was necessarily 
almost universal discontent, and poor France turned 
with disgust from that substitute for appalling terror- 
ism — the oppressive mockery of a republic. 



CHAPTER ly. 

Napoleon in Paris. — Tiie 18th Bruraaire. — Napoleon at St. Cloud.— 
The consular government. — The motives of Napoleon. — Reforms.— 
The new constitution. — Napoleon at the Tuilleries. — Josephine. — 
Personal appearance of the first consul. — News of Washington's 
death. — The Bourbons. — Napoleon's policy. — Propositions of peace 
with England. — Correspondence. — Causes of war. — Movements of 
the armies. — Capitulation of Genoa. — Napoleon at Marengo. — The 
battle. — The results. — Napoleon at Milan. — Renewed hopes of the 
Bourbons. — A. new campaign. — Battle of Hoheiiliuden. — The em- 
peror sues for ppace. — Napoleon returns. — His work of reform of 
national advancement. — The infernal machine. — The spring of 1801. 
— The battle of Copenhagen. — The English take Egypt. — Invasion 
of England. — Peace of Amiens. — Letters. — Napoleon's designs of re- 
form. — Treaty with the Pope. — Legion of honor. — Consulate for life. 
— Colonial conquests. — Napoleon and the invasion of Ilayti. 

Napoleon retired again to his quiet dwelling in the 
Hue de la Vicloire, to contemplate the events of the 
past, and wait for the moment in the future, when the 
reins of government might be safely seized. He was 
conscious of the capacity to govern France, and of the 
sympathies of the people. His purpose, which had foi 
many years been unfolding in his gigantic mind, was 
now matured. Yet was there preliminary work to be 
done, before the decisive blow was given, which should 
crush the Directory, and sweep away the Council of 
the Ancients and of the Five Hundred. Besides, Ber- 
nadotte was opposed to him, and Moreau was likely to 



148 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

resist his power. In a conversation with Moreau, Na* 
poleon used language which briefly explains his mar- 
vels of military prowess, and shows his unsurpassed 
knowledge of the universal principles of human ac- 
tion. " It was always the inferior force which was 
defeated by the superior. "When with a small body 
of men I was in the presence of a large one, collecting 
my little band, I fell like lightning on the wings of 
the hostile army, and defeated it. Profiting by the 
disorder which such an event never failed to occasion 
in their whole line, I repeated the attack, with similar 
success, in another quarter, still with my whole force. 
Thus I beat it in detail. The general victory which 
was the result, was still an example of the truth of the 
principle, that the greater force defeats the lesser." 
When he appeared first at Louxembourg, he was wel- 
comed with enthusiastic expressions of devotion. Not 
a murmur arose over his flight from Egypt. His 
studied and mysterious reserve did not cool the ardor 
of the people. He accepted an invitation to a public 
dinner, gave a toast — " The union of all parties"~and 
retired. The parties, besides the subdued royalists, 
were the Jacobins, under Barras, and the moderates^ or 
republicans, led by Sieyes ; both of which sought an 
alliance with Napoleon, whose influence would be a 
tower of strength. He chose the latter, as better suited 
to his grand design. His brother Lucien was presi- 
dent of the Council of Five Hundred, who, with the 
shrewd and unprincipled Talleyrand, was his confi- 
dential friend. The 17th Brumaire (November 8th, 



LIFE OF NATOLEON BONAPARTE. 149 

1799) came, and with it the distinct and ominous to- 
kens of civil commotion. The dragoons, the officers 
of the national guard, and of the garrison, who had 
requested an interview with Napoleon, on the evening 
of that day were astir with excitement ; Napoleon had 
named the next morning for their reception at the Rue 
de la Yictoire. The 18th Brumaire dawned; and at 
six o'clock the military bands were moving toward the 
humble residence of Napoleon, marching to the strains 
of martial music, which drew the populace in throngs 
along the streets. Bernadotte was there in citizen's dress. 
Having desired Napoleon's arrest as a deserter upon 
his arrival from Egypt, he refused all the proposals to 
join the new party, and left the splendid cavalcade 
around the man who had little cause to fear his hosti- 
lity, with the promise, that as a citizen he would do 
nothing against him. The Council of the Ancients 
assembled at the Tuilleries, at seven o'clock in the 
morning, and the president declared the necessity of 
bold measures to save the republic; and announced 
two decrees for immediate adoption. One was to re- 
move their sittings to the chateau of St. Cloud, a few 
miles from the capital ; and the other conferred upon 
Napoleon the supreme command of all the military 
force in and around Paris. The motions passed,. and 
the tidings were carried to Napoleon. Mounting a 
steed he rode off to the Tuilleries, to finish the victory 
so nearly won. He addressed the Council in these 
words: "You are the wisdom of the nation ; I come, 
surrounded by the generals of the republic, to promise 



.150 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

you their support. Let us not lose time in looking 
for precedents. Nothing in history resembled the 
close of the eighteenth century — nothing in the eigh- 
teenth century resembled this moment. Your wisdom 
has devised the necessary measure ; our arms shall put 
it in execution." 

While these scenes were transpiring at the Hue de la 
Victoire and St. Cloud, the three Directors, who were 
not dreaming of a revolution, awoke as from a deep 
sleep to the crisis. Moulins suggested that they send 
a battalion of troops, surround Napoleon's house, 
and take him prisoner. But he was already in the 
palace, encircled by devoted and brave men in arms. 
Barras sent his secretary with an appeal to Napoleon, 
and received the haughty reply : " What have you 
done for that fair France which I left you so prosper- 
ous ? For peace, I find war ; for the wealth of Italy, 
taxation and misery. Where are the one hundred 
thousand brave French whom I knew — where are the 
companions of my glory ?■ — 'They are dead," Sieyes 
and Ducos had resigned, and now Barras, dreading 
the exposure of his corruption and bribery, followed. 

Bernadotte, whose pledge did not allow of active 
hostility as a citizen, offered his command to the op- 
position, urging that would give the troops a choice 
of leaders. The offer was rejected, and the Direc- 
tory of France passed away before the advancing 
power of Napoleon. The Council of Five Hundred 
only remained. When they heard of the decree which 
changed their place of meeting to St. Cloud, they se- 



LIKE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 151 

parated, indignantly shouting, " Vive la Bepuhlique !" 
" Vive la Constitution /" Next morning, attended by all 
who sympathized with them, they repaired for a final 
struggle 10 St. Cloud. Napoleon was in the Tuilleries, 
the soldiers ready for action, and the people anxiously 
waiting the issue of these far reaching events. Murat 
led a formidable force to the arena of civil strife. On 
the 19th Brumaire, the assemblies gathered to their 
chambers. 

" The Council of Ancients were ushered into the Gal- 
lery of Mars, and, the minority having by this time 
recovered from their surprise, a stormy debate forth- 
with commenced, touching the events of the preceding 
day. Bonaparte entered the room, and, by permission 
of the subservient president, addressed the assembly. 
* Citizens,' said he, ' you stand over a volcano. Let 
a soldier tell the truth frankly. I was quiet in my 
home when this council summoned me to action. I 
obeyed : I collected my brave comrades, and placed 
the arms of my country at the service of you who are 
its head. "We are repaid with calumnies — they talk of 
Cromwell — of Caesar. Had I aspired at power the op- 
portunity was mine ere now. I swear that France 
holds no more devoted patriot. Dangers surround us. 
Let us not hazard the advantages for which we have 
paid so dearly — Liberty and Equality !' A demo- 
cratic member, Lingiet, added aloud, ' And the Consti- 
tution.' * The Constitution 1' continued Napoleon — ' it 
has been thrice violated already — all parties have in- 
voked it — each in turn has trampled on it : since that 



152 LIFE OF NAPOLEOJ^ BONAPARTE. 

can be preserved no longer, let us, at least, save ita 
foundations — Liberty and Equality, It is on you only 
that I rely. Tbe Council of Five Hundred would re- 
store tbe Convention, tbe popular tumults, tbe scaffolds, 
tbe reign of terror. I will save you from sucb borrors 
— I and my brave comrades, wbose swords and caps I 
see at tbe door of tbis ball ; and if any bireling prater 
talks of outlawry, to tbose swords sball I appeal.' Tbe 
great majority were witb bim, and be left tbem amid 
loud cries of ' Vive Bonaparte P 

" A far different scene was passing in tbe bostile as- 
sembly of tbe Five Hundred. "Wben its members at 
lengtb found tbeir way into tbe Orangery, tbe apart- 
ment allotted for tbem, a tumultuous clamor arose on 
every side. Live the Constitution I — The Constitution or 
death/ — Down with the Dictator ! — sucb were tbe omin- 
ous cries. Lucien Bonaparte, tbe president, in vain 
attempted to restore order : tbe moderate orators of tbe 
Council witb equal ill success endeavored to gain a 
bearing. In tbe midst of tbe tumult Napoleon bimself, 
accompanied by four grenadiers, walked into tbe 
cbamber — tbe doors remained open, and plumes and 
swords were visible in dense array bebind bim. His 
grenadiers baited near tbe door, and be advanced alone 
toward tbe centre of tbe gallery. Then arose a fierce 
outcry — Drawn swords in the sanctuary of the laws I — 
Outlawry ! — Outlawry I — Let him he proclaimed a trai- 
tor ! — Was it for this you gained so many victories? 
Many members rusbed upon tbe intruder, and, if we 
may place confidence in bis own "tale, a Corsican de- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 153 

putj, by name Arena, aimed a dagger at his throat. 
At all events, there was such an appearance of per- 
sonal danger as fired the grenadiers behind him. They 
rushed forward, and extricated him almost breathless; 
and one of their number (Thome) was at least re- 
warded on the score of his having received a wound 
meant for the general. 

" It seems to be admitted, that at this moment, the 
iron nerves of Bonaparte were, for once, shaken. With 
the dangers of the field he was familiar — he had not 
been prepared for the manifestations of this civil rage. 
He came out, staggering and stammering, among the 
soldiery, and said, ' I offered them victory and fame, 
and they have answered me with daggers.' 

" Sieyes, an experienced observer of such scenes, 
was still on horseback in the court, and quickly reas- 
sured him. General Augereau came up but a moment 
afterward, and said — ' You have brought yourself into 
a pretty situation.' 'Augereau/ answered Napoleon, 
'things were worse at Areola. Be quiet; all this will 
soon right itself.' He then harangued the soldiery — • 
' I have led you to victory, to fame, to glory. Can I 
count upon you?' 'Yes, yes, we swear it,' was the 
answer that burst from every line — ' Vive Bonaparte /* 

" In the Council, meantime, the commotion had in- 
creased on the retreat of Napoleon. A general cry 
arose for a sentence of outlawry against him; and Lu- 
Ciien, the president, in vain appealed to the feelings of 
nature, demanding that, instead of being obliged to put 
.hat question to the vote, he might be heard as the ac| 



154 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

vocate of his brother. He was clamorously refused, 
and in indignation flung off the insignia of his ofl&ce. 
Some grenadiers once more entered, and carried him 
also out of the place. 

" The president found the soldiery without in a high 
state of excitement. He immediately got upon horse- 
back, that he might be seen and heard the better, and 
exclaimed : ' General Bonaparte, and you, soldiers of 
France, the president of the Council of Five IJundred 
announces to you that factious men with daggers in- 
terrupt the deliberations of the senate. He authorizes 
you to employ force. The assembly of Five Hundred 
is dissolved.' 

" Napoleon desired Le Clerc to execute the orders of 
the president; and he, with a detachment of grena- 
diers, forthwith marched into the hall. Amid the re- 
iterated screams of ' Vive la Repuhlique,^ which saluted 
their entrance, an aid- de-camp mounted the tribune, 
and bade the assembly disperse. * Such,' said he, 
' are the orders of the general.' Some obeyed ; others 
renewed their shouting. The drums drowned their 
voices. 'Forward, grenadiers,' said Le Clerc; and 
the men levelling their pieces as if for the charge, ad- 
vanced. When the bristling line of bayonets at length 
drew near, the deputies lost heart, and the greater part 
of them, tearing off their scarfs, made their escape, 
with very undignified rapidity, by way of the win- 
dows. The apartment was cleared. It was thus that 
Bonaparte, like Cromwell before him, 

!' ' fura'd out tho nioiubc^-s, and made fast the door ' 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 155 

Some of his military associates proposed to him, that 
the unfrieudlj legislators should be shot, man by man, 
as they retreated through the gardens ; but to this he 
would not for a moment listen. 

"Lucien Bonaparte now collected the moderate mem- 
bers of the Council of Five Ilundred ; and that small 
minority, assuming the character of the assembly, 
communicated with the Ancients on such terms of mu- 
tual understanding, that there was no longer any diffi- 
culty about giving the desired coloring to the events 
of the day. It was announced, by proclamation, that 
a scene of violence and uproar, and the daggers' and 
pistols of a band of conspirators, in the Council of Five 
Hundred, had suggested the measures ultimately resort- 
ed to. These were — the adjournment of the two 
Councils until the middle of February next ensuing ; 
and the deposition, meantime, of the whole authority 
of the state in a provisional consulate— Wiq consuls be- 
ing Napoleon Bonaparte, Sieyes, and Ducos. 

" Thus terminated the 19th of Brumaire. One of 
the greatest revolutions on record in the history of the 
world was accomplished, by means of swords and bay- 
onets unquestionably, but still without any effusion of 
blood. From that hour the fate of France was deter- 
mined." 

Napoleon immediately returned to Paris, and com- 
municated to the waiting, anxious Josephine the tid- 
ings of that day's decisive scenes; the convulsive 
throes in which a monarchy was born of a monster 
republic. After a cordial embrace, he said to hei 



156 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

triumpliaiitly, " Grood-night, my Josepliine I To-mor- 
row we sleep in the palace of the Louxembourg." 

The next morning, the consuls met in council. 
Napoleon displayed his versatile talent, by the superi- 
ority of his knowledge on all questions of govern- 
mental, civil, and social reform. And the words of 
Sieyes, when he returned to his house, where Talley- 
rand and others were assembled, fell like a knell upon 
their ears; and their ambition to divide the power 
with Napoleon vanished forever. " Gentlemen," he 
exclaimed, ' ' I perceive that you have got a master. 
Bonaparte can do, and will do every thing himself." 
Then thoughtfully pausing a few moments, he added, 
" But it is better to submit than to protract dissension 
forever." 

This stride of the Corsican General, not yet thirty 
years old, toward the summit of absolute rule, has 
been the theme of bitterest condemnation, and is one 
of the most dif&cult questions to rightly consider and 
j ustly settle, in all his surprising career. That France 
was not prepared for the rational construction and en- 
joyment of a republic like our own, cannot be denied. 
And further, that wearied with ten years of successive 
revolutions and new constitutions, the masses were 
ready for any form of stable authority, under the dis- 
guise of freedom, is equally clear. On the other hand 
Napoleon was ambitious, and without an effort to 
mold into form and durabiliiy the elements of demo- 
cratic government, he dissolved the legislative assem- 
blies, and by a resort to arms, which if opposed migh< 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 157 

haveeuded in sanguinary civil war, crushed out every 
germ of a republican state ; and sat down upon a 
throne, which the populace did not at first behold, 
because obscured by the satellites he kept in servile 
evolutions between it and those who bowed before 
their idol. 

Dizzy and dazzled with his own premature great- 
ness, Napoleon doubtless believed he was doing the 
best for France, while bringing her under the undis- 
puted sway of his transcendent genius. But he was 
responsible for the absence of those moral qualities, 
that enlightened conscience, and regard to man as pos- 
sessed of inalienable rights, and sighing the world over 
for freedom, which gave the world a "Washington. 
How great the temptation to the Father of American 
liberty at one crisis in the gi'eat struggle, to become a 
king; and how indignantly he spurned it, and would 
rather have been a bleeding sacrifice upon the demol- 
ished altar of freedom, than grace a throne of willing 
subjects. Napoleon has been maligned by English 
historians, but "no sorcery of words," nor admiration 
of the biographer, can make him compare, only in 
glaring contrast, with the youthful chieftain of Valley 
Forge, and the sage of Mount Vernon. 

Napoleon, with no opposition but the hatred of the 
powerless Jacobins, set about the reorganization of the 
empire, and the administration of its chaotic affairs. 
The first act of the consuls was to arrange the finances 
of the nation, which were in a disordered and burden- 
some condition. Twenty-five per cent, was added to 



158 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

the regular taxes, and the revenue fixed on a systema- 
tic basis of income and expenditure. The " Law of 
Hostages" which confined multitudes of innocent 
people in prison, on account of the real or imagined 
crimes of their exiled friends, was wiped out of the 
statute book, and the captives ushered into the light 
of day. The humane deed spread joy over France, 
and increased the popularity of Napoleon. The next 
and most honorable stroke of policy, was the reopen- 
ing of the Christian temples for religious worship, in 
the face of that sceptical, materialistic philosophy which 
has ever been the curse of the nation, and was imported 
into the heritage of the noble pilgrims, from that fair 
land, during the revolutionary war. "Without a beliet 
in the personality, holiness, and power of God, and the 
spiritual worship and religious institutions which at- 
tend it, a republic never did long, and never can 
permanently exist. Napoleon understood this want 
among a people, although he was not a Christian. 
He carried the measure, restoring nominally Christi- 
anity, on the ground of its utility — the necessity of it in 
the progress and control of a great nation. He secured 
immediately the devoted fidelity of not less than 
twenty thousand of the clergy who had pined for 
months or years in prison. Shipwrecked exiles were 
set free. La Fayette and other conspicuous revolu- 
tionists who had been banished, were recalled — of 
whom Carnot was made secretary of war, and soon 
showed the wisdom of the choice by his reforms in the 
arm}'-, which the neglect of the Directory had weak- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 159 

ened and divided. The time had arrived for the 
formation and announcement of anew government for 
the people. Siejes presented a plan to Napoleon, in 
which the chief magistrate was to be styled grand 
Elector — having a splendid salary but only the form 
of authority. Napoleon, with contempt, rejected the 
proposal, and the following constitution in substance 
was accepted December 14, 1799 : 

" Three assemblies shall be composed of persons 
chosen from the notables of France, viz. — 1. The 
Conservative Senate, consisting (at first) of twenty-four 
men, of forty years of age, to hold their places for life, 
and receive, each, a salary equal to one-twentieth of 
that of the chief consul : 2. The Tribunate, to be com- 
posed of one hundred men, of twenty -five years of age 
and upwards, of whom one-fifth go out every year, but 
re-eligible indefinitely ; the salary of each, 15,000 
francs: and, 3dly, The Legislative Senate, composed of 
three hundred members, of thirty years of age, renew- 
able by fifths every year, and having salaries of 10,000 
francs. The executive power shall be vested in three 
consuls, chosen individually, as chief consul, second, 
and third; the two former for ten years, the last for 
five. In order that the administration of affairs may 
have time to settle itself, the tribunate and legislative 
senate shall remain as first constituted for ten years, 
■without any re-elections. With the same view of 
avoiding discussions during the unsettled state of 
opinion, a majority of the members of the conservative 
senate are for the present appointed by the consuls 



160 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONATARTE. 

Si eyes and Dacos, going out of office, and tlie consuls, 
Cambaceres and Lebrun, about to. come into office; 
tbey shall be held to be duly elected, if the public 
acquiesce ; and proceed to fill up their own number and 
to nominate the members of the tribunate and legisla- 
tive senate. The acts of legislation shall be proposed 
by the consuls : the tribunate shall discuss and pro- 
pound them to the legislative senate, but not vote : the 
legislative senate shall hear the tribunate, and vote, 
but not debate themselves ; and the act thus discussed 
and voted shall become law on being promulgated by 
the chief consul . Bonaparte is nominated chief consul, 
Cambaceres (minister of justice) second, and Lebrun 
third consul." 

The first consul was virtually sole regent, whose 
authority, by the confirmation of the legislative body, 
was nearly dictatorial. He was elected for ten years, 
and was re-eligible. He was also irresponsible, and 
appointed all the employes of peace and war. He was 
the head of the army. By the organ of the council of 
state, and of the ministry, who were entirely depend- 
ent on him, he had the right of proposing laws. He 
controlled the finance, police, war, peace and alliances. 
Indeed the checks upon supreme rule were rather ap- 
parent than real. 

Finding his republican residence too small for his 
court and ambition, he obtained a removal Qf the con- 
sular domicil to the Tuilleries, although the very 
centre of kingly associations, and of that hated pomp 
which the people had trodden in the dust with the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 161 

blood of tbeir monarch. Everything opposed to the 
levelling democracy was proposed and carried forward 
under disguise. The ancient halls of royalty were 
named the Government Palace, and given into the 
hands of rulers whose chief wore in place of a crown 
a conqueror's cockade, and for a sceptre a sword 
which he grasped with more devotion than ever did a 
despot the symbol of power. 

The occasion of this transfer was one of great 
splendor — resembling an English coronation in the 
ceremony and jubilant festivity of the scene. The 
consul's tried and brave companions in arms were 
many of them in the train which delighted to do him 
honor. The troops dashed proudly along the streets, 

'■4. 

the banners were flung out on the breath of departing 
winter — and the swell of martial music led on the ex- 
cited cavalcade to the silent apartments made desolate 
by the Eeign of Terror. Upon their walls was en- 
graved in golden letters, the word Repvblic — com- 
pleting the deception whicb calmed the fears of the 
masses unconsciously rendering homage to Jupiter, 
while, as they supposed, bowing to the goddess of 
liberty. 

The evening of this memorable day brought the 
arena of .Josephine's glory. The spacious drawing- 
rooms occupied by her were crowded by eight o'clock 
with the beauty and chivalrj of France. Foreign am- 
bassadors in decorations that were indices of the courts 
that they represented, veteran officers, and the remnant 
of an ancient nobility, all assembled to congratulato 



1G2 LIFE OF NArOLEON BONA.PAIITE. 

the hero of Egypt and Italy, upon his accession to tlie 
guardiansliip of their beloved France. Beautiful 
women in ricli apparel and with jewelled brows, shed 
the light of their admiring eyes upon the jQashing star, 
coronet, and plume, that were the attractive insignia 
of greatness in that gay assembly. The horrors of 
civil war which for ten years had agitated and ravaged 
the realm were forgotten — the dead slumbered in the 
covered caves of their hurried burial — ^the guillotine 
had ceased to haunt the ear with the ominous echo of 
its frequent stroke, and the nation's heart beat once 
more freely beneath the protecting aggis of that single 
arm, which had hewn down the riotous mob, annihi- 
lated armies, then overthrowing a miserable govern- 
ment, in the name of a citizen had taken the reins of 
supreme dictation over a submissive and delighted 
people. 

The illusion was successful that met their observa- 
tion in all this outward parade. The fine talents of 
untitled heroes, and the splendor that outshone the 
gaudy machine of Bourbon oppression, pleased ex- 
ceedingly the multitude, who seemed to be in the as- 
cendant — while the royalists read with hope in this 
returning grandeur, the indications of a full restoration 
of monarchy. 

Gruests from every class of citizens, therefore, par- 
ticipated in this magnificent entertainment, with un- 
usual joy. Josephine attended by Talleyrand, the min- 
ister of foreigq, affairs, jkitered the saloon greeted with 
the murmur of universal admiration. Her dress was 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 163 

simple, and her manner, tben as always indeed, per- 
fectly graceful. The white muslin of her apparel like 
a vestal robe, was both entirely becoming and an 
emblem of her unstained innocence of action. The 
tresses of her hair fell negligently upon her neck, 
around which a simple ornament of pearls threw their 
lustre, and her features beaming with benignity made 
her a charming contrast with the unfortunate wife of 
Louis, her admired predecessor. She received the 
presentation of ambassadors with quiet dignity, and 
passed through the thronged apartments, smiling on 
the company with the sympathy and affection of an 
ingenuous spirit beneath the unaffected majesty of a 
queen. She was now thirty-six, but retained to a re- 
markable degree the freshness and buoyancy of her 
youth. Her tasteful and unostentatious attire, and the 
sparkling sweetness of her conversation, contributed 
much to the manifold attractions she possessed. 

" Josephine was rather above than below the middle 
size, hers being exactly that perfection of stature 
which is neither too tall for the delicacy of feminine 
proportion, nor so diminutive as to detract from dig- 
nity. Her person, in its individual forms, exhibited 
faultless symmetry ; and the whole frame, animated by 
lightness and elasticity of movement, seemed like 
something aerial in its perfectly graceful carriage. 
This harmonious ease of action contributed yet more 
to the dignified, though still youthful air so remarkable 
in Josephine's appearance. Her features were small 
and finely modelled, the curves tending rather to ful- 



16-t LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

ness, and the profile inclining to Grecian, but without 
any statue-like coldness of outline. The habitual 
character of her countenance was a placid sweetness, 
within whose influence there were few who would not 
have felt interested in a being so gentle. Perhaps the 
first impression might have left a feeling that there 
wanted energy ; but this could have been for an in- 
stant only, for the real charm of this mild countenance 
resided in its power of varied expression, changing 
with each vicissitude of thought and sentiment. 
' Never,' says a very honest admirer, * did any woman 
better justify the saying, " The eyes are the mirror of 
the soul." ' Josephine's were of a deep blue, clear and 
brilliant, even imposing in their expression, when turn- 
ed fully upon any one; but in her usual manner they 
lay half concealed beneath their long and silky eye- 
lashes. She had a habit of looking thus with a mild, 
subdued glance upon those whom she loved, throwing 
into her regard such winning tenderness as might not 
easily be resisted, and, even in his darkest moods, Na- 
poleon confessed its tranquilizing power. Realizing 
exactly the fine description of the old poet, Josephine's 

'"Long hair was glossy chestnut bro-wn,' 

whose sunny richness harmonized delightfully with a 
clear and transparent complexion, and neck of almost 
dazzling whiteness. Her eyebrows were a shade 
darker, arching regularly, and penciled with extreme 
delicacy. Tke perfect modulation of her voice has al- 
ready beau mentioned ; it constituted one of her most 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 165 

pleasing attractions, and rendered her conversation, 
though not sparkling with wit nor remarkable for 
strength, but flowing on in easy elegance and perfect 
good-nature, the most captivating that can easily be 
conceived ; on the whole, Josephine, perhaps, might 
not exactly have pretensions to be what is termed a 
fine woman, but hers was that style of beauty which 
awakens in the heart a far deeper sentiment than mere 
admiration." 

Napoleon, on the occasion described, appeared in 
plain uniform, decorated only with the tri-colored sash, 
a simple and beautiful badge worn with no less policy 
than taste. A glow of satisfaction played upon his 
pale features — ^his noble forehead hung like a battle- 
ment over the restless orbs, whose fire flashed with the 
rapidity of lightning, revealing the hue of thought, but 
not its secret, mighty workings — and upon his coun- 
tenance, meditation as a mysterious presence was al- 
ways visible. His figure was rather diminutive, as 
before described, and he stooped in walking carelessly 
with his friends. His hands were symmetrical, of 
which it is said he was particularly vain. Among the 
eccentricities of his dep<. rtment, which were merely 
the peculiarities of genius engaged in profound con- 
templation, he had a convulsive shrug of his right 
shoulder, moving at the same instant his mouth in that 
direction. 

Bonaparte turned away with weariness at times from 
the cares and pleasures of the Tuillerie^, and sought 
with Josephine the tranquil scenes of Malraaisop. 



Kill 1,1 I'l', OK NAI'UI.KON IKIN A !• A U'l'K. 



Tlidi'iilJi d.'iy "I' I'Ik' (I("('jmI(^, jiinl iirirr ihr n-slom- 
linn (»r III!' lir|)i|()iii;i(I:il cjildinliii', dvi'i'y Siil.iird.'iy mihI 
Siil»l»;illi \v('r(i |»fi:tM(<(l ill. Ilicir ('JiiinMiii|j; villiu 

Tlid (IciUli of \ViiHliiii;.';loii, DmuMiilxir Ml.Ii, 17lM>, 
irnclii'd h'f.iiict" ; miuI N fi| k ili't m ex | ircsMivl liis .'idmirji- 
li"ii oI'iIk' dliiMtiioiiM |i.'i,l liot, ;uid iiH'i'c'iscil IJki dcoc^p- 
live Idi.Io ill' rn>i>d»>in, coiu'cidiiij^ IiIm llinnH' of royalty, 
by iMMiiiiif!; Ilm lnllowiiij{ «)rdor lo l\\o iii'iiiy : "VVimli- 
iiigl.on in di'nd I Tlmt g'i"(\'il. iiiiiii loiii'lil ii;/;;rniMl. 
iymniiy. I hi (iHtidiliMlicd ilic lilicrty ul' Imm coiiiiriy. 
IIIm iiuMiHU'v will l»(^ ever dcnr li» llii* ricciiicii of jioiJi 
luMiUHpluMOH, und (iM|nu5i(illy lo tlio J'^roiicli HoldinrH, who, 
lik(i Iiiiiuiiid |.li(> AiuoricMii troopn, liuvo loiij^lil. lor libtT- 
ty mid (M|ujdily. Ah ji. iiiiirk of rt>s|u'c.l., iJid l^'irnK 'oiisid 
oi'dci'M lli;il, for IiMi d;iyM, |)l;ick ciniit' Ini .silS|)Ond('(l 
iVoiii ;dl llii' hiiimcrM Mild nl;i,iidiird;i nf I lie rrpnhlir," 

Till' ii.l»!U'iii'(' (if I iiil liriilii(';;n ill Hum Inn^iinf^o in ;i|>- 
|i;iirii|., liibcrly witH iiol, Manned, ;iiid Kniiunnio iiiori" 
!i rrpnliliti iJinti iJio ciiipini of UiisHin, in to -d.'n-. 

Mt';iii\vliil(i iJii' M<'!ill('lTd n<)iirlu)ii,s ;iiid llicir iViriidn, ' 
williiii ;iliil bi'voiid llic (•(iiiriiH'S of i'ViiiKM', win) S.'iW 
tlio proporMoiiM ofn, new moiiuivliy ii])p(mriiijj; ilirougli 
llic illiK'.ioti b('lbr(< tlu> iiiiiidH of tlio iMiinHcs, b('}j;!in to 
Ih'pi' lliiil wlii'ii llio picpiifntory wt)t'k wmm coinplcUMl, 
llio dctlirniu'd dyiiM.sly would be n-slorcd lo llio 
HovonM.'Oily of lli(> ii.'ilioii. An ;iiiditMif(>, ni iii)a;l»t, 
W.'iH >»r!inl.(nl lo l.lio nginilM of Iho r\iK'd princfs, wlion 
Nnpolcon nsMUivd IIumu IIimI. iIk* nMrinpl. would bo 
H!iii|';uiu!iry ; jiud n'TuMiMl nil iu>!!;olijiliou with niiv Nvlio 
.•idliiMi'd lo llio policy of llit> lloiirbous. lie (pmlloa 



I.II''K Ol' NAI'OI.IOON HONArAKTK. 



107 



flin civil war «)!' t.lu^ n\vuliNl.s in i\\o popnIuUH provinco 
ol' La VoiuKv, ami wdu tlu^ priiunpal ohii^lM t.o liis ad- 
vancing intorcst.. I lis y\\\o of action nl. thiM period, was 
(wprcsscd in llu< rtnuai'lv lo Sioyos : " W'c arc crrnlin;^ 
a new era, of llic |):imI, \vc wwvM, lorj-vl, I lie Imd. and 
rcnnMid)cr only 1 he good." lie carried ont llu^ prin- 
ciple in the consolidation ol" power wilh Inn own snr- 
IKissing skill ami prophetic eye on the I'ninre. lie 
Heleeted one consnl iVoni llie repid>Iie;inM, iniolhcr iVoni 
the royali.stH — opposite in prineipIcM, and yet I ho 
crealnrcH oC his will — and prevenlvd by tlu'ir relation 
to each oth(M', from (Mtnspiring against him ; and when 
the nnrclial)le charaelvr ol' 'Pidh'yi'iiiid wa.s urg(>d as 
an oltjeelion to his elevated |)ositii>i), N;i|iolt'(tn replied, 
" Mo it NO, but he is the ablest minister (or I'oreiiMi nl- 
liiirs in o\ir choic.i*, and it sha,ll be my eari^ thiit he 
everts his abililies." (.^arnot, in like manner, wjih 
objected to as a lirnt republican. " Itepnblican or 
nnl," iinswered N!i|iolei>ii, "he is oik* ol" ihe 1,'ist 
i'Venehmen thai woidd wish tt> see l*'r;niee disniem- 
beie«l, l/ct US aA'ail ourso'vcs of his unrivalled tnh'nirt 
in the war dc])aTtnu^ut, while he is willing lo phuMi 
them ut our connnand." All parties ccpially cried out 
against Ihe falsehood, dnplieily, ;ind, in (liel, jivowed 
prolligaoy of b'ouelu'. " l^'onehe," s.'iitl nomipartc, 
"and l"\Mich(! alon(», is able to conduct the ministry 
»'f tln^ polici>: ht^ aloiu^ lias a perfect knowdtxlge of all 
llu^ (actions and intrigtics which have been Hpi'cailing 
miserv Ihronjdi I'Vani'c. WtM'.annot ci'cale men: wo 
must t.Mke such as we lind ; and it is easier to modify 



168 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

by circumstances tlie feelings and conduct of an able 
servant than to supply his place." 

Civil liberty was enjoyed, although political liberty 
was not secured. There was equality in the presence 
of law, for all Frenchmen. The same forms of trial 
were decreed for the people, and the highest position 
in the realm, possible for the worthy and aspiring 
citizen, except the consular throne. 

With a tranquil kingdom at his feet, Napoleon's 
next and serious care was the menacing attitude of 
Austria and England. Kussia had abandoned the 
alliance, and the autocrat seemed to have been sud- 
denly smitten with admiration for Napoleon. Austria, 
in his absence during the Egyptian campaign, had 
invaded northern Italy, and England, with Nelson's 
victories to revive her courage, was unchanged in her 
attitude toward France. The consul hoping, however, 
that by advances from himself, peace might be secured, 
he disregarded the etiquette of diplomacy, and directed 
the follow i I )g letter to George the Third. 

" French Republic — Sovereignty of the reople— 
Liberty and EquaUty." 

^'Bonaparte, First Consul of the Republic^ to his Majesty 
the King of Great Britain and Ireland : 

"Called by the wishes of the French nation to occu- 
py the first magistracy of the republic, I have thought 
proper, in commencing the discharge of its duties, to 
communicate the event directly to your majesty. 

" Must the war, which for eight years has ravaged 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 169 

the four quarters of the world, be eternal ? Is there 
no room for accommodation? How can the two most 
enlightened nations of Europe, stronger and more 
powerful than is necessary for their safety and inde- 
pendence, sacrifice commercial advantages, internal 
prosperity, and domestic happiness, to vain ideas of 
grandeur? Whence comes it that they do not feel 
peace to be the first of wants as well as of glories ? 
These sentiments cannot be new to the heart of your 
majesty, who rule over a free nation with no other 
view than to render it happy. Your majesty will see 
in this overture only my sincere desire to contribute 
effectually, for the second time, to a general pacifica- 
tion — ^by a prompt step taken in confidence, and freed 
from those forms, which however necessary to dis- 
guise the apprehensions of feeble states, only serve to 
discover in the powerful a mutual wish to deceive. 

" France and England, abusing their strength, may 
long defer the period of its utter exhaustion ; but I 
will venture to say, that the fate of all civilized nations 
is concerned in the termination of a war, the flames of 
which are raging throughout the whole world. I have 
the honor to be, etc, etc., etc. 

"Bonaparte." 

In accordance with the constitution of England, 
the response was made through the ministry; and 
Lord Grenville, Secretary of State, thus wrote to 
Talleyrand : 

"The king of England had no object in the war 



170 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

but the security of his own dominions, his allies, and 
Europe in general. He would seize the first favor- 
able opportunity to make peace — at present he could 
see none. The same general assertions of pacific in- 
tentions had proceeded, successively, from all the 
revolutionary government? of France ; and they had 
all persisted in conduct directly and notoriously the 
opposite of their language — Switzerland, Italy, Hol- 
land, Germany, Egypt, what country had been safe 
from French aggression ? The war must continue 
till the causes which gave it birth ceased to exist. The 
.estoration of the exiled royal family would be the 
.asiest means of giving confidence to the powers of 
Europe. The king of England pretended by no means 
to dictate anything as to the internal policy of France ; 
but he was compelled to say, that he saw nothing in 
the circumstances under which the new government 
had been set up, or the principles it professed to act 
upon, which tend to make foreign powers regard it as 
either more stable, or more trustworthy than the tran- 
sitory forms it had supplanted." 

It is evident that England, with justice, felt that 
the sanguinary revolutions, whose last phase was the 
elevation of Napoleon to supreme command of the 
restless masses, offered no basis of pacific negotiations. 
Nothing had transpired in all the career of the first 
consul, to inspire confidence in his future reign. The 
cabinet knew that he loved war, and policy only kept 
his legions from the gates of London. It is also true, 
that England was determined to have peace only on 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 171 

the gi'ound of protection to the raonarchies whose 
thrones had trembled before the tramp of Napoleon's 
battalions. 

The king was too haughty and exacting : the first 
consul flushed with conquest, ready, if his terms of 
amity were not accepted, to open again the sluices of 
human blood. 

And who that surveys the awful excesses and blas- 
phemies of the French nation up to this period, can 
marvel at the suspicions of England, especially when 
her own pre-eminently superior institutions and gen- 
eral progress, were to her view safe only under the 
aegis of the limited monarchy she boasted. The 
spirit with which Napoleon negotiated, and saw the 
result, is expressed in his own emphatic language: 
" The answer filled me with satisfaction. It could not 
have been more favorable. England wants war. 
She shall have it. Yes ! yes ! war to the death !" 

On the other hand, the extravagant demands of the 
British government were rebuked by a letter purport 
ing to be from the heir of the House of Stuart, claim- 
ing from the hand of George the Third, the throne of 
the realm over which his ancestors had held the scep- 
ter. England was not anxious to close the war with 
France, nor was Napoleon grieved at the fact ; and he 
did not long wait to declare it. He had the casus belli, 
m British intervention and arrogance, which he em- 
oraced with his cherished enthusiasm for glorj' on the 
field of Mars. 

It was desirable that France should rest from con- 



172 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

flict, and tlic sagacious consul knew, and therefore de- 
sired it. Had England been more just and generous, 
disentangled from alliance with corrupt and tottering 
thrones of despotic j^ower, peace would have stopped 
the slaughter of men, and the sufferings it spread in 
the homes of Europe. 

Three days after the date of Lord Grrenville'rf letter, 
January 7th, Napoleon's edict was published, creating 
an army of reserve, comprising the veterans of former 
service, strengthened by the addition of thirty thou- 
sand recruits. 

Bonaparte again addressed the troops in his stirring 
style of appeal, which kindled into a flame the zeal 
of the nation : " Frenchmen I you have been anxious 
for peace. Your government has desired it with still 
greater ardor. Its iirst efforts, its most constant efforts, 
have been for its attainment. The English ministry 
has exposed the secret of its iniquitous policy. It 
wishes to dismember France, to destroy, and either to 
erase it from the map of Europe, or to degrade it to a 
secondary power. England is willing to embroil all 
the nations of the continent in hostility with each 
other, that she may enrich herself with their spoils, 
and gain possession of the trade of the world. For 
the attainment of this object she scatters her gold, be- 
comes prodigal of her promises, and multiplies her 
intrigues." 

The preparations for a mighty struggle now went 
forward with the energy which attended all the grand 
designs of , the pervading genius 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 173 

" The chief consul sent Massena to assume the com- 
mand of the ' army of Italy ;' and issued, on that oc- 
casion, a general order, which had a magical effect on 
the mii^ds of the soldiery. Massena was highly 
esteemed among them; and, after his arrival at 
Genoa, the deserters flocked back rapidly to Jiheir 
standards. At the same time, Bonaparte ordered 
Moreau to assume the command of the two corps of 
the Danube and Helvetia, and consolidate them into 
one great ' army of the Rhine.' Lastly, the rendez- 
vous of the ' army of reserve' was appointed for 
Dijon : a central position, from which either Massena 
or Moreau might, as circumstances demanded, be sup- 
ported and reinforced; but which Napoleon really 
designed to serve for a cloak to his main purpose. 
For he had already, in concert with Carnot, sketched 
the plan of that which is generally considered as at 
once the most daring and the most masterly of all the 
campaigns of the war. In placing Moreau at the 
head of the army of the Ehine, full one hundred and 
fifty thousand strong, and out of all comparison the 
best disciplined as well as largest force of the republic, 
Bonaparte exhibited a noble superiority to all feelings 
of personal jealousy. That general's reputation ap- 
proached the most nearly to his own ; but his talents 
justified this reputation, and the chief consul thought 
of nothing but the best means of accomplishing the 
purposes of the joint campaign. While this service 
was given to Moreau, the chief consul was not with- 
out a daring plan for his own action." 



174 LIFE OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Moreau, tliough gifted, was not able fully to grasp 
Napoleon's bold outline of the campaign, and modified 
it to suit liis more moderate action. The consul 
yielded to individual law of mind, and purpc^ed him- 
self to lead an army into the field. The movements 
at Dijon were only a disguise in which to cheat the 
enemy, and conceal his greater design. While Austria 
supposed he was there preparing to rally the army of 
Italy, and march to Genoa, his troops were pouring 
from every part of France, into the valleys of Switzer- 
land, neither detachment apprised of the destination 
of any other. 

On the 4:th of May he left Malmaison, and embrac- 
ing Josephine upon his departure, bade her adieu with 
these words : " Courage, my good Josephine ! I shall 
not forget thee, nor will my absence be long," Two 
days after, he was reviewing the vanguard of the army 
of reserve at Lausanne, consisting of six tried regi- 
ments of his best troops under Lannes. Immediately 
orders were given for the whole force, led by Vic- 
tor, Murat, and other brave commanders, amounting 
to thirty-six thousand men, to move forward to St. 
Pierre, a hamlet at the foot of St. Bernard. From 
this village to St. Remi, over that gigantic crest of the 
Alps, Great St. Bernard, the route is environed with 
difficulties apparently insurmountable, and which 
frown upon the daring adventurer with hopeless ter- 
ror. A survey of the fearful ascent resulted in tho 
decision of a bare possibility of success ; upon which 
Napoleon said confidently, " Let us forward then I" 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 175 

The mighty cavalcade went steadily up the rugged 
heights — over precipices well-nigh perpendicular, drag- 
ging the heavy artillery upon the trunks of trees after 
them, while martial music was poured in thrilling 
echoes on the ear of the mountain solitude, and the 
occasional interlude of a charge was beaten, to revive 
the courage of the struggling host. The eagle left his 
eyry to look on a scene that his flashing eye had never 
witnessed before, and sent down to the dark defiles 
the cry of alarm ; while the wild goat paused in his 
flight to watch the tortuous advance of the vast Hydra 
which hung upon the snow-clad declivity, from its 
base to its cloud-covered brow. 

The wondrous marches under the shadow of frown- 
ing fortresses, and along the ridges of majestic perilous 
cliffs, on which Napoleon would lie down and snatch 
a brief repose — the almost unearthly daring of the 
troops, and mysterious charm of their leader's voice — 
cannot be portrayed with pen or pencil. The chieftain 
sent back his youthful guide, from whom he had 
learned a tale of love and penury, with a scrap of 
writing, which the bearer could not read, conferring 
on him a pleasant home ; in this he soon introduced 
the maiden he led to the altar, where he died many 
years after Napoleon had ceased to live even in exile. 

The consul descended the glittering glaciers in a 
sledge, and on the 2d of June entered Milan amid the 
shouts of the populace, who supposed he was sleeping 
beneath the waters of the Eed sea. 

Meanwhile, Genoa, which had been in blockade by 



176 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

forty thousand Austrians under General Ott, and the 
English fleet under Lord Keith, on the coast, was 
compelled to surrender; and Masseua, on account of 
his unrivaled braver}'- amid famine and threatened 
insurrection of the inhabitants, was allowed to march 
his troops to the head-quarters of Suchet, on the fron- 
tier of France, holding the last line of defense on that 
boundary. Greneral Ott, by his delay at Genua, gave 
Napoleon the advantage of rapid advance. Melas, 
perplexed with the movements of the consul, while 
Suchet demanded attention for a time, accomplished 
nothing. But the Austrian commander at length saw 
his peril, and moved on toward Marengo ; General Ott 
was also in motion. Napoleon, who had not heard of 
the fall of Genoa, was contemplating its relief as a sur- 
prise to Melas, when on the 9th of June, Lannes, who 
had advanced to Montebello, suddenly came on the 
Austrian army. At eleven o'clock the battle opened. 
The Austrians from the surrounding slopes swept the 
plain with their batteries. The field of carnage was a 
waving harvest-field of tall rye, which so concealed the 
opposing battalions, that often before they knew their 
proximity the hostile bayonets met. Lannes fought 
like a demon, piled around with the dead, and breast- 
ing the tide of battle, till Victor's division could arrive. 
It came, and the conflict raged afresh. Lannes said 
of this horrid slaughter beneath the amphitheatre of 
batteries, "/ could hear the hones crash in tny division 
like glass in a hail storm." 

At nightfall the roar of combat died away, and five 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 177 

thousand prisoners were in the hands of the French, 
and the bloody field was won. When Napoleon rode 
up, he contemplated proudly the blackened hero amid 
the ghastly forms of the slain ; and immediately gave 
him the title of Duke of Montebello, in honor of his 
bravery. The victory fanned the enthusiasm of the 
French, and roused the desperate courage of the Aus- 
trians. The daring Dessaix, who followed Napoleou 
from Egypt, a few months later, found upon landing 
the consul's request to join him in the new campaign. 
He is said to have remarked of his beloved commander, 
*' He has gained all, and yet he is not satisfied." He 
hastened toward the scene of action, to fight under the 
banner which had streamed in, the smoke of battle 
beneath the shadow of the pyramids. Napoleon moved 
onward to the village of Marengo, and finding no 
traces of the enemy, sent Dessaix to watch the road 
toward Genoa, and Marat toward Scrivia. On the 14th, 
Melas with forty thousand men, entered the plain of 
Marengo, before the dawn kindled on his forest of 
burnished bayonets. Napoleon had twenty thousand 
troops ; Dessaix, with six thousand more, was thirty 
miles from Marengo. When the conflict began, he 
caught the sound of the heavy cannonade coming like 
the roar of thunder to his ear, and springing to his 
steed, hurried his division forward. Napoleon sent 
successive couriers to urge the rushing ranks, on 
whose timely aid hung the fortunes of the terrible day. 
The tempest of fire was too wasting to be resisted. 

The battalions began to reel, fall b^ck, f^nd retreat 

8* 



178 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

While Napoleon with his falling columns slowly 
yielded to the living masses of exulting Austrians, 
Melas, confident of victory, retired to his tent, and 
prepared for swift messengers, the tidings of the grand 
event. At this critical moment, Napoleon's restless 
eye caught the outline of Dessaix's division sweeping 
into the field. The brave commander dashed onward 
to salute the first consul ; and beholding the flight on 
every hand, exclaimed, "I see the battle is lost." Na- 
poleon replied, " The battle, I trust, is gained. Charge 
with your column. The disordered troops will rally 
in your rear." Dessaix turned, and met the tide of 
fiery devastation, as a wall of granite meets the angry 
billows. 

Kellerman was ordered to charge in flank, while 
Napoleon's voice rang along the lines, reassuring his 
men, and giving with his own miraculous rapidity of 
action, a new aspect to the crimson plain of Marengo. 
The Austrian army was compelled to halt, and receive 
the onset of Dessaix. The fire was answered, and the 
hero fell pierced through the heart, declaring his only 
regret to be, that he died before his fame was secure 
— a transit to eternity, no devout mind can contem- 
plate with pleasure. The enraged troops poured a 
fresh storm of bullets upon the enemy ; and Napoleon, 
who greatly admired Dessaix, said, " Why is it not per- 
mitted me to weep? Victory at such a price is dear." 
The day declined, and the last smile of the sun, after 
the twelve hours' carnage, on whose beginning it rose, 
flashed over twenty thousand men, mangled and bleed* 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 179 

ing; the dead and dying, in hideous chaos among the 
pools of yet warm life-blood. 

The tri-color again waved over the triumphant 
consul, and unnumbered living hearts were breaking 
beneath the swelling shout of conquest. 

The next day, Melas opened a negotiation, whose 
terms Napoleon accepted. The Austrians abandoned 
Genoa, Piedmont, Lombardy, and the Legations, and 
were allowed to leave the field undisturbed, and gain 
the rear of Mantua. 

Napoleon then entered Milan, a conqueror with the 
mysterious greatness of a military prodigy, and the 
boundless enthusiasm of the people of France. Four 
days after the affair of Marengo, he wrote to his asso- 
ciates in office, at the capital : " To-day, whatever our 
atheists may say to it, I go in great state to the Te 
Deum^ which is to be chanted in the cathedral of 
Milan ;" an expression indicating that external regard 
to forms of religious worship, which his convictions 
of the Divine sovereignty, and sagacious })olicy in 
governing men, approved. 

Massena received the command of the army of Italy, 
Joardan was minister at Piedmont. The first consul 
started for Paris. His journey was the march of a 
nation's idol, to whom their wildest and most sound- 
ing homage was paid. July 2d he arrived at the 
Tuilleries, and the Parisians seemed frantic with joy 
Illuminations nightly made the city flash and glow 
like a magnificent temple, whose dome was the bend 
ing sky, filled with acclamations. 



180 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

During the month of August, the Jacobins, who 
hated as bitterly the royalist, as they had ardently 
admired their republican leader before his apostacy, 
plotted his assassination. Ceracchi, a sculptor, who 
modeled a bust of Napoleon, came from Italy to aid 
in the design. The plan was to surround Napoleon 
in the entrance of the theatre, and stab him. But a 
conspirator betrayed his comrades, and they were 
arrested at the moment the consul was expected, and 
quietly given into the hands of justice. 

September 5th, Malta surrendered to the English 
under Lord Keith, which increased the indisposition 
to close the war with France, on the part of England ; 
whose government had bound Austria to her consent, 
before a treaty could be definitely signed. 

" During the armistice, which lasted from the 15th of 
June to the 17th of November, the exiled princes of 
the house of Bourbon made some more ineffectual en- 
deavors to induce the chief consul to be the Monk of 
France. The Abb^ de Montesquieu, secret agent for the 
Count de Lille, afterward Louis XYIIL, prevailed on 
the third consul, Le Brun, to lay before Bonaparte a let- 
ter addressed to him by that prince — in these terms : 
' You are very tardy about restoring my throne to 
me : it is to be feared that you may let the favorable 
moment slip. You cannot establish the happiness of 
France without me ; and I, on the other hand, can do 
nothing for France without you. Make haste, then, 
and point out, yourself, the posts and dignities which 
will satisfy you and your friends.' The first cooaul 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. ISl 

answered thus: 'I have received your royal ffigh« 
ness's letter. I have always taken a lively interest in 
your misfortunes and those of your family. You must 
not think of appearing in France — you could not do 
so without marching over five hundred thousand 
corpses. For the rest, I shall always be zealous to do 
whatever lies within my j)ower toward softening 3'our 
royal highness's destinies, and making you forget, if 
possible, your misfortunes.' The Comte D'Artois, 
afterward Charles X. of France, took a more delicate 
method of negotiating. He sent a very beautiful and 
charming lady, the Duchesse de Guiche, to Paris. She 
without difficulty gained access to Josephine, and 
shone, for a time, the most brilliant ornament of the con- 
sular court. But the moment Napoleon discovered the 
fair lady's errand, she was ordered to quit the capital 
within a few hours. These intrigues, however, could 
not fiiil to transi^ire ; and there is no doubt that, at this 
epoch, the hopes of the royalists were in a high state 
of excitement." 

"When the armistice expired, Austria, having em- 
ployed the time in mustering her forces for war, put 
her splendid army under the command of Archduke 
John. Napoleon was also ready for the contest. 
General Brune marched against the enemy on the 
plains of Italy, with Yienna in view ; General Mac- 
donald was among the Alps, with victory attending 
his progress over the fields of snow ; and Moreau with 
twenty thousand men was on the Ehine. December 
3d he was in the dismal forest between the Iser and the 



182 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPABTE. 

Inn, when at midnight, in a howling, wintry storm, lie 
met the archduke with seventy thousand troops. The 
roads, which were covered with snow, were lost ; the 
Austrians were bewildered, and the combatants came 
together not unfrequently, column against column. 
The cannon balls cut down trees, whose crasb added a 
faint echo to the sounds of carnage and death, which 
rose through that horrible midnight. The tri-color 
again waved over the field of battle, and with ten 
thousand dead, tbe exulting army of the Ehine pur- 
sued the retreating Austrians, whose loss in killed and 
wounded, was not less than fifteen thousand. 

Contemplating such scenes, the mind cannot fail to 
wonder at the fascination of war over the common 
soldiery, with the certainty of this havoc in their ranks, 
and an unlamented, ghastly bed of death ; and often 
without knowing or caring for the cause of contest, 
rushing, like sheep driven to the slaughter, at the 
bidding of ambitious kings, into the leaden tempest of 
battle. The capital of Austria was threatened by 
three proud armies, and the emperor was in extremity. 
He must let England go, or fall himself iiito the hands 
of the French. He despatched a messenger of peace, and 
the result was the treaty at Luneville, February 9th, 
1801. The Ehine was acknowledged to be the bound- 
ary of France, which gave to the nation Austrian and 
Prussian territory ; Tuscany was given up, svhich the 
consul purposed to offer the House of Parma as a 
royal reward for Spanish services in the war ; the new 
republics were secured against intervention ; the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 183 

Italian prisoners released from Austrian dungeons ; 
and France at peace with Earopc, England excepted. 
The terms of this memorable treaty were not im- 
moderate ; and they left without excuse the king and 
cabinet of the British Empire, whose isolated position 
and their conquering navy, were the sources of secu- 
rity, and of injury to the French. In the pause of 
the open hostilities which succeeded the treaty, 
Napoleon, with characteristic power, transferred his in- 
spiring presence again to the peaceful arena of national 
glory. Eevenues, roads, and bridges, appeared with 
magical rapidity ; and the legal code was cast into the 
crucible of his molding, creative mind, where every 
thing connected with personal and public interest was 
fused under its glowing activity, and went forth bear- 
ing indelibly the stamp. Napoleon. 

Attempts to assassinate the first consul were repeat- 
edly made. The boldest and most nearly successful, 
was the explosion of the infernal machine, December 
24th. A cart was prepared containing a barrel with 
gunpowder and grape shot, to be fired by a slow match. 
The terrible engine of destruction was designed for 
Napoleon, at the moment his carriage passed on the 
way to the opera from the Tuilleries. He reached the 
Rue St. Nicaise, and was startled from slumber by the 
thunder of the report, and the jar of the carriage, ex- 
claiming toLannes and Bcssieres, " We are blown up." 
The terrified attendants were halting, when he quickly 
ordered them to drive on with all speed to the theatre. 
The coachman, excited with wine, had driven flister 



184 LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 

than usual, and saved the consul's life. Half a minuto 
earlier, and Napoleon's career would have closed sud- 
denly and tragically as did Caesar's, the splendor of 
whose military fame he admired. 

Twenty persons were killed, among them the assas- 
sin who sprung the mine ; and the windows near were 
shattered to fragments. When the tidings spread 
through the assembly in the theatre, shouts of enthu- 
siastic congratulation greeted him; and the escape 
gave a new and almost unearthly interest to their idol. 
The conspirators were discovered and beheaded. Such 
is the greatness of royalty ; the adulation of the throng 
rises over the smothered embers of hate, whose con- 
flagration at any moment may consume the dazzling 
pageant, and leave behind the brief epitaph ; 

Our morning's onvy, and our evening's sigh. 

It is an argument supporting the principle of demo- 
cratic government, that nowhere is greatness so secure 
— sovereignty so quiet and unguarded by force, as 
in an enlightened republic. 

The spring of 1801 opened with a new aspect of 
continental affairs, favorable to the interests of France. 
A treaty had been formed with the United States ; 
Pope Pius YI. had died, and was succeeded by the 
bishop of Imola, a favorite of Napoleon ; and at the 
request of the emperor of Eussia, to whom the queen 
of Naples went in mid-winter to implore his media- 
tion, peace was made with that kingdom March 28th. 
Thus instead of re-establishing the " Eoman Republic," 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 185 

upon tlie second conquest of Italy, the papal reign was 
continued, as more subservient to the consolidation of 
the consul's power, than his removal would bo. It 
was no longer difficult to enlist Paul of Eussia in tlie 
plans of Napoleon. His vanity was flattered ; and the 
Russian prisoners sent home, equipped and clothed at 
the expense of the state. England claimed the right 
of a general blockade of France, and to search mer- 
chant vessels of every nation. She was the undisputed 
mistress of the seas. The neutral powers, it is true, 
had consented to the principle of blockade and search ; 
but when Eussia revived the opposition felt at first to 
this exercise of authority, Prussia, Denmark, and 
Sweden, soon followed, and united their powers in an 
alliance against England. Meanwhile, the British 
fleet, under Lord Nelson, had passed the Sound, to 
secure an engagement with those allies, before the 
forces of France and Holland should be added to them. 
April 2d, with a favoring wind, Nelson advanced 
with twelve ships of the line, beside frigates and fire- 
ships, upon the Danish armament, which included six 
ships of the line, eleven floating batteries, and an im- 
mense number of smaller vessels chained together and 
to the shore, and covered by crown batteries and the 
fortifications of Amack. The terrible battle o|)ened 
and raged with fiendish fury. For four hours limbs 
fell like autumnal leaves — the brains flew on every 
hand, and blood ran in streams upon the decks. An- 
other complete victory was gained by the naval power 
of England, and at so fearful a sacrifice, that Nelsou 



186 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAHTE. 

said, " I have been in above a hundred engagements, 
but that of Copenhagen was the most terrible of them 
all." The prince-regent of Denmark was compelled- 
to abandon the alliance with France. A few days be- 
fore this event, the emperor of Russia was assassinated 
in his palace, and was succeeded by Alexander, who 
consulted the wislies of the nobility in a change of 
policy toward Napoleon. The intelligence was more 
melancholy to the consul than the defeat in the Baltic, 
lie exclaimed, "Mon Dieu !" and immediately wrote 
the following brief note to Joseph, evidently not aware 
of the real cause of his death. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Pakis, April 11, 1 SOL 

" The emperor of Russia died on the night of the 
24th of March, of a stroke of apoplexy. I am so 
deeply afflicted by the death of a prince whom I highly 
esteemed, that I can enter into no more details. He 
is succeeded by his eldest son, who has received the 
oaths of the army and of the capital." 

Malta had surrendered to British arms, and now 
came the loss of Egypt, while Napoleon was preparing 
to send reinforcements thither. The brave Kleber 
was killed by a Turkish assassin, and Menou, his suc- 
cessor, was unpopular. At this crisis, the English 
under Lord Keith, on the sea, and Abercrombie on 
land, made the descent March 8th, at Aboukir. The 
French were beaten in a single campaign, and the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAr.TE. 187 

remnant of the splendid army wbicli sailed under Na- 
poleon two years before, was transported free in Eng- 
lish vessels home again. 

Upon hearing of' the fate of his dearly purchased 
colony, he remarked, " Well, there remains only the 
descent on Britain." An army of one hundred thou- 
sand men was rapidly concentrated on the coast of the 
English channel, and flat-bottomed boats were ready 
to convey the troops across the Eubicon, whenever the 
possibility of avoiding the English fleet slionld occur. 
Lord Nelson was again the formidable and watchful 
commander of the opposing naval force, and after re- 
peated surveys of the French preparations for invasion, 
at length determined to move down upon the flotilla, 
under the fire of the batteries, and cut away the boats 
of the enemy. August 4th, before dawn, the bold 
attempt was made. But the boats were chained to 
each other, and to the land; and after a brief and 
furious fire, Nelson retired, without any show of suc- 
cess. A more desperate assault was made August 
16th, with more decided defeat. Every thing now 
conspired to urge measures for peace. Ireland was 
restless, and combustible material of a serious kind 
was accumulated in England. The increase of taxa- 
tion to meet the enormous expenses c£ prolonged con- 
flict, was oppressive, and corruption prevailed in Par- 
liament. The probabilities of a victorious descent 
upon British soil were becoming daily less, and Na- 
poleon also desired a cessation of hostilities. Pitt, the 
champion of the anti -revolutionary party, who was toe 



188 LIFE OP NAPOLEON" BONAPAETE. 

obstinate to yield to any pressure but that of self-pre* 
servation, retired from of&ce, and was succeeded by 
Addington. Lord Hawkesbury, tbe new secretary of 
foreign affairs, expressed immediately the king's will- 
ingness to make peace. 

The congress met at Amiens, midway between 
London and Paris. Lord Cornwallis, who was con- 
spicuous in the American Eevolution, was the English 
minister, and Joseph Bonaparte the ambassador of the 
court of France. About this time Louis Bonaparte 
was married to Hortense, the daughter of Josephine, 
and the mother of the present emperor of France. - 

Letters to Joseph, during the negotiations at Amiens, 
shed light upon that conference, and on his manifold 
ambitious plans. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, January 6, 1802. 

" I am to set off to-morrow, at midnight, for Lyons.* 
I shall stay there only eleven or twelve days 

"I believe that Greneral Bernadotte has gone to 
Amiens. "Whether he be there or not, I wish him to 
let you know if he would like to go to Gaudaloupe as 
captain-general. The island is in a high state of pros- 
perity and of cultivation ; but Lacrosse made himself 
unpopular ; and as he had only five hundred whites 
in his service, he was driven out, and a mulatto has 

* The objects of Napoleou's visit to Lyons were to arrange the de- 
tails of the Constitution of the Cisalpine Republic, and to be received 
as its President. — Tr. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 189 

set himself at the head of the colonj. The peace with 
England was not then expected. Three ships, four 
frigates, and three thousand good infantry, have been 
sent to disarm the blacks, and to maintain tranquility. 
It is an agreeable and important mission in every re- 
spect. Some reputation is to be gained, and a great 
service done to the republic, by tranquilizing for ever 
this colony. From thence he may perhaps go to take 
possession of Louisiana, and even of Martinique and 
of St. Lucia. 

" If this tempts Bernadotte's ambition, as it appears 
to do, you must immediately let me know; for the 
expedition will set off in the month of Pluviose [Janu- 
ary — February], and missions to the colonies are de- 
sired by the most distinguished generals. I shall wait 
for the courier's return before I appoint to this post." 

A few days later, he wrote more fully his views 
upon the difficulties before the congress, and gave an- 
other exhibition of his thirst for conquest, in hia 
designs upon Hayti ; a fact which fixes an indelible 
blot on the character of the first consul, and which we 
shall expose more at length in another place. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, March 21, 1802. 

" Your last letter has been shown to me. I approve 
of your conduct, and especially of your reserve. 

'' It seems that to-day we are again approaching an 
aafreement. As to the prisoners, Otto tells me that 



190 LIFE OF NS.POLEON BOJSIAPARTE. 

tlie English minister,? admit that France should be 
allowed in account what the prisoners taken from the 
allies of England have cost her. This beems right. 

"With regard to Malta, there can be no harm in 
declaring, since it is a fact, that the post of Grand 
Master is vacant ; as one of the articles provides that 
there shall be no longer an English or a French na- 
tion,* a Frenchman cannot be appointed. This stipu- 
lation has been made chiefly on account of the Bour- 
bons, because it has been said that England wishes to 
appoint a Bourbon Grand Master. We hold that th.e 
French emigrants are not eligible, as there is no longer 
a French nation, and, although the emigrants are in 
exile, they retain their nationality. 

" The words ' forming part of the Neapolitan army,' 
which they want to substitute for the term 'native,' 
are rather important if their secret wish is to introduce 
French emigrants or Englishmen ; if this be not the 
motive for the change cf words, it is of less im- 
portance. 

"What relates to the Prince of Orange may stand 
if the words 'patrimonial estates' are added. 

" What is very important is that no mention should 
be made of nobility as regards Malta; our system of 
government is opposed to it. It would be absurd if 
we were made to say that a man must be noble in 
order to enter the order of Malta : the middle course, 
and the right one, is not to allude to the subject. This 
matter is the most important in the Maltese questions. 
* The knights were divided into seven Langues or nations. — -Tb. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 191 

" It is also important to put the article on Turkey 
last, and to cancel the words ' allies of England ;' 
otherwise you would likewise have to insert ' former 
allies of France, allies of Russia, and of the emperor;' 
but the better plan is to s^^ppress the words ' allies of 
Great Britain.' This is a very important article, be- 
cause these words, standing alone, would give to 
England a species of supremacy which would not 
suit us. 

"I have just received letters from St. Domingo, 
dated the 20th February; they contain good news. 
Port Republican has been taken, with all its forts, 
without burning any thing. They have taken Tous- 
saint's military chest ; it contained two million five 
hundred thousand francs. The Port de la Paix and 
St. Domingo are occupied. The Spanish party has 
submitted, and on the 29th General Leclerc had gone 
to attack Toussaint, who held out with seven or eight 
thousand men. 

" You will find enclosed a letter to Jerome." 

March 27, the treaty was concluded and hailed with 
joy and festivity by both nations. England restored 
all her conquests, excepting Ceylon and Trinidad, ceded 
to her by the Batavian republic and Spain. Egypt 
was to be restored to the Porte ; Malta given again 
to the knights of St. John, and declared a free port. 
"Neither nation was to have any representatives in the 
Order, and the garrison was to be troops of a neutral 
power. This article which occasioned much discus 



192 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

sion, was subsequently the pretext of another hostile 
struggle. With tranquility, came a ceaseless flow of 
travel from Brittain to France, where, amid the new 
order of things, Napoleon was the great object of curi- 
dsity to the distinguished visitors who resorted to the 
Tuillcries. Fox and the Consul parted with the most 
friendly regard. The aristocracy were pleased with 
the regal order of the consular court. 

The treaties of Luneville and Amiens, which thus 
gave fresh grandeur, and the promise of abiding great- 
ness to the new dynasty, afforded Napoleon the oppor- 
tunity of prosecuting his vast designs — " vast indeed, 
for he aspired to nothing less than making France the 
world-swaying state, and himself its unlimited lord. 
The measures which he conceived and executed to 
arrive at this result, were prudent, energetic, perse- 
vering, for the most part salutary in their more imme- 
diate effects, but also frequently unprincipled, unjust, 
criminal, and in respect to their ultimate object, alto- 
gether execrable. It was necessary, in the first place, 
to heal the yet bleeding wounds which France had re- 
ceived in the Eevolution, and to gain the confidence 
and the gratitude of the people for the first consul. 
He therefore first tranquihzed and subjected all parties, 
in showing to all equal favor, without giving himselt 
up to any. Then an active life that corresponded with 
tho progress of politics, and especially with the inter- 
ests of national economy, came into all branches of the 
administration. Roads were laid out, canals dug, har- 
bors, dikes, and bridges constructed, everywhere ways 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 193 

of intercourse made or facilitated, the spirit of inven- 
tion encouraged by honors and rewards, and even the 
genius of foreign countries rendered subservient to the 
French interest. Such establishments and institutions 
in France itself, and in its vassal states, mark the 
whole period of Bonaparte's power, and — however 
many are his faults and his iniquities — the half of 
Europe is fall of those monuments of his creative ge- 
nius and his greatness as a regent. 

But besides such praiseworthy works, the most art 
ful manoeuvres of despotism, and the most insatiable 
ambition were early displayed. To be the venerated 
and loved head of a great and free people did not 
satisfy his selfishness. He would be despot and sole 
ruler, in short, all in all. No other independent power 
was permitted to stand beside his, and he thought he 
had nothing unless all. 

" In the first place, he put the press in chains. But 
he who does not allow the word of complaint chal- 
lenges the hostile deed. Onlj'' a system of terror can 
then protect him. Bonaparte had recourse to the last. 
Fouche, his minister of police, organized an omnipo- 
tent army of Arguses and police servants, which soon 
mastered the domain of thought itself. At the same 
time the first consul established special iribuiials through 
the whole kingdom, composed of judges whom the 
consul ajDpointed, chiefly officers, truly revolutionary 
Ixibunals now in the service of the monarch."* 

By a decree of the senate, April 26th, the emigrants 

* Von Rotteck — History of the World 
9 



19-1 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

were allowed to return to France upon taking the oatli 
of allegiance. But a greater measure soon followed 
in the concordat^ or peace bet^sreeu the consul and the 
Pope. This restored the Eoman Catholic religion to 
its supremacy in France, but shorn of its power by 
the overshadowing authority of Napoleon. Ecclesias- 
tical ordinances, the consecration of priests, and festi- 
vals, were all celebrated only with the permission of 
the government. A special ministry was appointed for 
the purpose, and but one liturgy and catechism were 
permitted in the kingdom. In nothing, however, did 
Napoleon encounter more opposition, than when the 
church was the object of regard. The atheism born 
of a corrupt, despotic system of Christianity, was roused 
in the minds of the revolutionary leaders into hostility, 
at the mention of religion. While Napoleon never 
identified himself with the church, he defended it, as 
necessary to the preservation of the state. In one of 
his conversations at Malmaison, he said : 

" But religion is a principle which can not be eradi- 
cated from the heart of man." " Who made all that ?" 
said Napoleon, looking up to the heaven, which was 
clear and starry. " But last Sunday evening," he con- 
tinued, " I was walking here alone when the church 
bells of the village of Euel rung at sunset. I was 
strongly moved, so vividly did the image of early 
days come back with that sound. If it be thus with 
me, what must it be with others ? In re-establishing 
the church," he added, " I consult the wishes of the 
great majority of my people." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 195 

The concordat dissatisfied the high Catbolic part}^, 
and the bishops made trouble for the consul in their 
reluctant assent to its practical workings, yet it was ra- 
tified by the people as the best that could be done in 
the emergency. It was celebrated in the cathedral of 
Notre Dame, Avhere Napoleon appeared in state. 

A national system of education, as a substitute for 
the institutions of learning which disappeared with 
the influence and position of the clergy, was adopted ; 
and the Polytechnic school established under Monge — 
an institute which furnished France with gifted men 
during the succeeding years of its j^rosperity. The 
deliberations concerning the 7iew civil code were 
opened, but awoke so much, opposition from those 
jealous of his extending power, that he withdrew, 
for the time, his projected reform. Then came the 
splendid link in the lengthening chain which would 
gather the people within its folds to his throne, which 
he called the legion of lionor. 

The proposition to form this order, met with violent 
hostility. The idea was evidently suggested by the 
idolatrous admiration the crowd paid to the insignia 
of royalty which glittered on the forms of foreign am- 
bassadors, who appeared at the Tuilleries. But repub- 
lican senators saw in it a stride toward monarchy. 
Napofeon expressed himself freely to them on the 
subject, in the following words, in which he alluded 
to Berthier's remark, that ribbons and crosses were 
the playthings of monarchy, unknown among the 
Romans • 



196 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

"They are always talking to ua of the Eomana 
The Eomans had patricians, knights, citizens, and 
slaves : — for each class different dresses and different 
manners — honorary recompenses for every species of 
merit — mural crowns — civic crowns — ovations — tri- 
umphs — titles. When the noble band of patricians 
lost its influence, Eome fell to pieces — ^the people were 
vile rabble. It was then that you saw the fury of 
Marius, the proscriptions of Sylla, and afterward of 
the emperors. In like manner, Brutus is talked of as 
the enemy of tyrants : he was an aristocrat, who 
stabbed Csesar because Caesar wished to lower the 
authority of the noble senate. You talk of child^s rat- 
tles — be it so ; it is with such rattles that men are led. 
I would not say that to the multitude ; but in a coun- 
cil of statesmen one may speak the truth. I do not 
believe that the French people love liberty and equality. 
Their character has not been changed in ten years : 
they are still what their ancestors, the Gauls, were, 
vain and light. They are susceptible but of one sen- 
timent — honor. It is right to afford nourishment to 
this sentiment, and to allow of distinctions. Observe 
how the people bow before the decorations of foreign- 
ers. Voltaire calls the common soldiers Alexanders at 
five sous a day. He was right ; it is just so. Do you 
imagine that you can make men fight by reasoning? 
Never. You must bribe them with glory, distinctions, 
rewards. To come to the point; during ten years 
there has been a talk of institutions. Where are they ? 
All has been overturned: our business is to build ud 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 197 

There is a govern ment with certain powers ; as to all 
the rest of the nation, what is it but grains of sand ? 
Before the republic can be definitely established, we 
must, as a foundation, cast some blocks of granite on 
the soil of France. In fine, it is agreed that we have 
need of some kind of institutions. K this legion of 
honor is not approved, let some other be suggested. I 
do not pretend that it alone will save the state ; but 
it will do its part." 

The law which created the legion of honor, was 
passed by a small majority, and in the face of great 
opposition, in the spring of 1802. Merit and not birth, 
it is true, was the ground of distinction ; but still it 
was a reward which amounted simply to a mark of 
favor from the prince — ^a regal smile upon the loyal 
subject, whose eminent services were deemed worthy 
of reward. 

Napoleon, with great display and public demonstra- 
tion, had accepted the office of President of the Cisal- 
pine republic, at the hands of the four hundred and 
fifty deputies, at Lyons, in January; and the next 
bold step in taking the reins of absolute rule to him- 
self, was the consulate for life. 

The peace of Amiens suggested to the tribune the 
presentation of some signal expression of national re- 
gard. Cambac^res proposed that Napoleon be created 
first consul without further limitation; the measure 
was carried, and the statesman repaired immediately 
to Malmaison, and laid the question before him. He 
had anticipated the event, and with expressions of 



198 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

devotion to the glorj of France, accepted the prospect- 
ive honor. The polls were opened throughout the 
kingdom, and the prefects with other officials, were 
busy in behalf of their future emperor. It was a diffi- 
cult, and even dangerous thing to say "no!" Carnot 
alone ventured to enter his protest in the council of 
state. There were three million five hundred and 
seventy-seven thousand three hundred and seventy- 
nine- votes cast, of which eleven thousand only were 
in the negative. Lafayette recorded his enlightened, 
patriotism in these words, " I can not vote for such a 
magistracy until public freedom is sufficiently guar- 
antied. When that is done, I give my voice to Na- 
poleon Bonaparte." 

Napoleon was declared consul for life, August 2d, 
1802. The proposition was also made, to include in 
the enthronement of the nation's idol, the power of 
appointing a successor ; the last act in the creation of 
an hereditary imperial sceptre. This was wisely re- 
fused, or rather deferred for a while, by Napoleon. 
But the words " Liberty, Equality, Sovereignty of the 
People^^ were effaced from the governmental papers, 
without exciting alarm among a people whose unsta- 
ble character, whose vanity and enthusiasm, rendered 
the yoke of a brilliant dynasty easy, and the throne, 
reared by their hands, a fascinating substitute for the 
simpler sovereignty of a republic. The monarchists 
were in ecstasies, and the consul well pleased with the 
change. 

The unfitness of the French for the unfettered free- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 199 

dom enjoyed in tlio United States, was palpable, but 
no more so, than the boundless desire for unquestioned 
sway, including in his view, the glory of his family 
and the nation, on the part of Napoleon. He made 
no effort to do any thing less than become supreme 
disposer of France, and if this march of power does 
not separate him from Washington beyond an outline 
of similarity, then never were republicans and roj'al- 
ists — presidents and kings — the world over, more de- 
luded, and stupid in their judgment and verdict upon 
two of the most conspicuous and renowned actors on 
the world's arena, since time began. 

Meanwhile, Napoleon, like England before him, 
■was extending his scepter over colonies, near and 
remote, fast as the work coidd be securely accom- 
plished. 

" Spain had agreed that Parma, after the death of 
the reigning prince, should be added to the dominions 
of France : and Portugal had actually ceded her prov- 
ince in Guyana. 

" Nearer him, he had been preparing to strike a 
blow at the independence of Switzerland, and virtually 
united that country also to his empire. The contract- 
ing parties in the treaty of Luneville had guarantied 
the independence of the Helvetic republic, and the 
unquestionable right of the Swiss to model their 
government in what form they pleased. There were 
two parties there as elsewhere — one who desired the 
full re establishment of the old federative constitution 
—another who preferred the model of the French re- 



200 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

public ' one and indivisible.' To the former party tbe 
small mountain cantons adhered — the wealthier and 
aristocratic cantons to the latter. Tljeir disputes at last 
swelled into civil war — and the party Avho preferred the 
old constitution, being headed by the gallant Aloys 
Eeding, were generally successful. Napoleon, who had 
fomented tlieir quarrel, now, unasked and unexpected, 
assumed to himself the character of arbiter between 
the contending parties. He addressed a letter to the 
eighteen cantons, in which these words occur : ' Your 
history shows that your intestine wars can not be ter- 
minated, except through the intervention of France. 
T had, it is true, resolved not to intermeddle in your 
a:^airs — ^but I can not remain insensible to the distress 
of which I see you the prey : — I recall my resolution 
of neutrality — I consent to be the mediator in your 
differences.' Eapp, adjutant-general, was the bearer 
of this insolent manifesto. To cut short all discussion, 
Ney entered Switzerland at the head of forty thousand 
troops. Eesistance was hopeless. Aloys Eeding dis- 
missed his brave followers, was arrested, and im- 
prisoned in the castle of Aarburg. The government 
was arranged according to the good pleasure of Na- 
poleon, who henceforth added to his other titles that 
of ' grand mediator of the Helvetic republic' Swit- 
zerland was, in effect, degraded into a province of 
France ; and became bound to maintain an army o 
sixteen thousand men, who were to be at the dispose 
whenever it should please him to require their aid, ^ 
the grand mediator." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAllTE. 201 

And here we may properly glance again at the 
conduct of Napoleon toward Hayti. 

Eight years after the government of France had, in 
accordance with the demands of her citizens, abolished 
slavery forever in the French territory of St. Domingo, 
and after the blacks of that colony had manfully and 
successfully battled with the fleets and armies of En- 
gland, and saved the colony to France, the first consul 
sought to reward them by reinstating the system of 
slavery. His deputy, M. Vincent, who had newly ar- 
rived from the Island with favorable impressions of 
the blacks, advised him to desist, hinting at the same 
time, that even the conquerors of Europe might fail 
to gather laurels in such an enterprise. 

For this suggestion, M. Vincent was banished to 
Elba, and the first consul, to make assurance doubly 
sure, dispatched an immense fleet with twenty-five 
thousand troops under the command of his brother- 
in-law. General Leclerc, to re-establish the ^^ ancient 
system" in St. Domingo. 

This force was in every sense, of a most imposing ' 
character. There were the troops of the Ehine, of 
Egypt, of the Alps, and of Italy ; — the very flower of 
the victorious armies of France ; — well tried and gal- 
lant soldiers — worthy of a better master and a higher 
cause. 

Whether this splendid armament was really sent 

forth for the glory of France, or whether the first 

consul was seeking the aggrandizement of his house, 

by giving to the husband of his sister the " heathen 

9* 



202 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

for an inheritance," can not be known ; but, whatever 
might have been the motive, the result of the expedi- 
tion was disastrous in the extreme. 

On the arrival of the fleet off the Cape Francois, 
General Leclerc dispatched messengers to the com- 
mandant of the town to indicate bis intentions, and 
also to suggest that he had splendid marks of favor for 
him from the consular government. But the officer, 
acting under the instructions of Toussaint, affected to 
believe that the ships could not be from France upon 
such an errand, and forbade the landing of a single 
man. Finding, however, that the force was over- 
whelming, and that its commander was resolute, he 
cleared the place of the women and children, and in- 
formed the messenger that upon the entrance of a 
single ship, the town would be given to the flames. 
Notwithstanding the hopeless chance by resistance, 
the outer fort expended its last shot upon the ap- 
proaching ships ; and as soon as the first vessel had 
passed the outer reef, the Cape was in a blaze — so that 
in less than six hours this miniature Paris was a mass 
of ruins. 

At every point the approach of the French troops 
was the signal for conflagration ; thus towns, villages 
and hamlets were reduced to ashes in rapid succession. 
Consequent upon the peculiarity of the climate, the 
exposed situation of the French, and the harassing 
guerilla warfare of the blacks, the invaders became 
dispirited and perplexed. Pestilence and famine Avere 
soon added to the horrors of war. and in an incredibly 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 203 

snort time, out of all the French troops, twenty-four 
thousand were dead, and one half of those who re- 
mained were in the hospital. 

The position pf General Leclerc became one of un- 
mixed anguish. The only ray of light which gleamed 
upon his gloomy path flashed from the desperate hope 
of ridding the country of Toussaint, whose name alone 
was stronger than an " army with banners." To effect 
this great end fairly and openly, he felt to be impossi- 
ble ; for in reply to an invitation to make a voyage to 
France in a French frigate, the wary chief replied, 
"when that tree (pointing to a small sapling) will 
build a big enough ship to carry me, I intend to go." 

This manifestation of distrust, satisfied Leclerc that 
Toussaint was no stranger to his wishes, and conse- 
quently that he would not easily be entrapped ; but 
the French commander soon found that Toussaint had 
not acquired even the first rudiments in political de- 
pravity ; for upon receiving an invitation to a friendly 
conference (in relation to the welfare of a part of the 
French army which was in distress), the black chief, in 
good faith, repaired to the isolated spot (near the sea 
coast) which had been named ; in this wild place he 
was seized, manacled, and sent to France. 

On his arrival at Brest, he was hastily transferred 
to an ice-bound dungeon in the mountains of Switzer- 
land, where, after a close confinement of ten months, 
he died. 

That the black chief* aimed at supremacy in St. Do* 

' Tt ia an intereating fact, coafirming the view already given of M 



204 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

mingo is quite probable ; in defense of this design it 
may be urged that the freedom of his race could not 
have been safely intrusted to other hands. It was true 
that France had given them freedom, but she had 
given them only what she had no longer the power to 
withhold, and having been impelled by necessity, or 
at best by a selfish policy, the blacks looked to the 
future with feelings of distrust, which were greatly 
strengthened by a knowledge of the fact that the 
colonists had never ceased for a moment to impor- 
tune both France and England to aid them in the re- 
establishment of slavery. 

The extensive preparations which were going on in 
France for the restoration of the ancient system of 
slavery were early known to Toussaint. Had he chosen 
to co-operate with the first consul, he could have se- 
cured for himself every thing short of sovereignty in 
the country, while resistance was sure to bring upon 
him condemnation as an outlaw, and probably death 
in lingering torments — but it is not pretended that he 
ever compromised or sought to compromise the free- 
dom of his race. Before the overwhelming armament 
appeared he had prepared himself for the worst, and 
when it came, the blazing batteries of the fifty-four 
ships backed by twenty-five thousand troops failed to 
change his purpose. 

consul's oppressive and fatal treatment of the Haytien chief, that the 
French government, after Napoleon's fall, granted to the sou of Tous- 
eaint a handsome pension for life. This income he freely gave to 
charity ; and recently died in Paris, unknown to fame, but honored 
and loved by the grateful poor. 



CHAPTER V. • , 

Omens of discord between England and France. — Violations of treaty. 
— Abuse of Napoleon. — Remonstrance. — Interview of the First Con- 
sul with Lord Whitworth. — Declaration of war. — Successes. — De- 
scent upon England. — Conspiracy. — Pichegru. — Duke d'Enghien. — 
Napoleon emperor. — The coronation. — Napoleon's sway. — Corona- 
tion at Milan. — Napoleon hastens to Paris. — Omens of war. — New 
coalition against France. — Napoleon desires peace. — The conflict 
opens. — Napoleon is victorious. — Address to the soldiers. — Marches 
toward Vienna. — Correspondence. — Austerlitz. — Letters. — Treaty of 
peace at Presburg. — Death of Pitt. — Royal plans. — Letters. — Naples 
seized — Sub-kingdoms.— Napoleon and Mr. Fox. — Letters. — Another 
campaign. — Prussia enters the field. — Battle of Jena and Auerstadt. 
— ^Napoleon enters Berlin. — Letters. — Pardons Prince Hatzfield. 

The year 1803 brought with it omens of a rupture 
between France and England. The subjection of 
Switzerland to the consulate, and the rapid enlarge- 
ment of the empire by diplomatic means, and as we 
have seen, daring invasions of independent nations, 
aroused the fears of England. Sheridan expressed the 
jealous}' and hate of the Pitt party, when he said: 
"The destruction of this country, is the first vision 
that breaks on the French consul through the gleam 
of the morning; this is his last prayer at night, to 
whatever deity he may address it, whether to J upiter or 
to Mohammed, to the goddess of battle or the goddess 
of reason. Look at the map of Europe, from which 
France was said to be expunged, and now see nothing 



20(5 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

but France. If the ambition of Bonaparte be irameas- 
Tirable, there are abundant reasons why it should be 
progressive." 

On the other hand, Fox, who represented the con- 
servative minds of the nation, used the following 
language: "France, now accused of interfering with 
the concerns of others, we invaded, for the purpose of 
forcing upon her a government to which she would 
not submit, and of obliging her to accept the family 
of Bourbons, whose yoke she spurned. * * * No 
doubt France is great, much greater than a good En- 
glishman ought to wish, but that ought not to be a 
motive for violating solemn treaties." 

England refused to surrender Malta, the fortress of 
the Mediterranean, according to the treaty of Amiens. 
The public prints on both sides of the channel exas- 
perated popular feeling with passionate and bitter 
articles upon the causes of discontent. Especially did 
English newspapers assail the character of Napoleon. 
He remonstrated, and received in reply from the 
ministry, the cool assurance that, 

"Oir courts of law are open — we are ourselves 
accustomed to be abused as you are, and in them we, 
like you, have our only recourse." The paragraphs 
in the Moniteur, on the other hand, were, it was im- 
possible to deny, virtually so many manifestoes..of the 
Tuilleries. 

" Of all the popular engines which moved the spleen 
of Napoleon, the most offensive was a newspaper 
(L^Amhigic) published in the French language, in 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAl'ARTE. 207 

London, by one Peltier, a royalist emigrant ; and, in 
spite of all the advice which could be ofifered, he at 
length condescended to prosecute the author in the 
English courts of law. M. Peltier had the good for- 
tune to retain, as his counsel. Sir James Mackintosh, an 
advocate of most brilliant talents, and, moreover, espe- 
cially distinguished for his support of the original prin- 
ciples of the French Eevolution. On the trial which 
ensued, this orator, in defense of his client, delivered a 
j)hi]ippic against th^ personal character and ambitious 
measures of Napoleon, immeasurably more calculated 
to injure the chief consul in public opinion through- 
out Europe,' than all the efforts of a thousand news- 
papers; and, though the jury found Peltier guilty of 
libel, the result was, on the whole, a signal triumph to 
the party of whom he had been the organ. 

" This was a most imprudent, as well as undignified 
proceeding; but ere the defendant Peltier could be 
called up for judgment, the doubtful relations of the 
chief consul and the cabinet of St. James were to as- 
sume a different appearance. The truce of Amiens 
already approached its close." 

England stubbornly refused to yield Malta to the 
protection of a neutral power, and thus clearly, per- 
severingly violated the most solemn pledge. What- 
ever infringement of the spirit of the treaty, Britain 
may have discovered in the spreading power of France, 
the letter of the engagement she treated with unblush- 
ing contempt. Justice demands the indictment, in 
this re-opening of bloody conflict. In an interview 



208 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

with Lord Whitwortli, Napoleon, with great earuest* 
ness, not unmixed Avith a dictatorial tone, and at con- 
siderable length, declaimed against the conduct of En- 
gland. Among other things, he said : 

" Every gale that blows from England is burdened 
with enmity ; your government countenances Georges, 
Pichegru, and other infamous men, who have sworn 
to assassinate me. Your journals slander me, and the 
redress I am offered is but adding mockery to insull. 
I could make myself master of Egypt to-morrow, if J 
pleased. Egypt, indeed, must, sooner- or later, belong w 
France; but I have no wish to go to war for such a 
trivial object. What could I gain by war? Invasion 
would be my only means of annoying you, and inva- 
sion you shall have, if war be forced on me — but I 
confess the chances would be a hundred to one against 
me in such an attempt. In ten years I could not hope 
to have a fleet able to dispute the seas with you ; but, 
on the other hand, the army of France could be re- 
cruited in a few weeks to four hundred and eighty 
thousand men. United we might govern the world 
— why can we not understand each other?" 

At a levee in the palace of the Tuilleries, March 13tn, 
Napoleon exclaimed to Lord Whitworth with much 
warmth, "You are then determined on war. We 
have been at war for fifteen years. You are resolved 
to have fifteen years more of it ; you force mo to it.'' 
And turning to other members of the ministry, he 
added : " The English wish for war ; but if they draw 
the sword first, I will be the last to sheath it agaia 



J.IFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 209 

rhej do not respect treaties — liencefortb we must 
cover tliem witli' crape." 

May 18th, England declared war. Before the proc- 
lamation readied Paris, orders were given to seize 
French vessels wherever found; and Napoleon retal- 
iated as soon as the fact was known, by issuing com- 
mands to arrest all the British subjects residing or 
traveling in his dominions. Several thousands, in- 
cluding eminent citizens, were thus made exiles in a 
hostile realm. 

The English prosecuted the war with energy, re- 
capturing French territory; while Bonaparte sent 
Mortier with twenty thousand men into the Electorate 
of Hanover, belonging to the patrimonial possessions 
of the king of England. 

The mighty contest, affecting the destinies of the 
world, had no longer the interest of former campaigns 
of the republic. Principles ceased to be the spirit of 
conflict, and the war became the desperate struggle of 
kings for their regal rights, ^nd the stability of their 
thrones. Liberty had plainly disappeared from the 
arena of prizes for which the nations were contend- 
ing. 

Within ten days after the opening of the conflict by 
the' enemy, the army of the consul had taken sixteen 
thousand troops, four hundred cannon, thirty thousand 
muskets, and three thousand five hundred horses of 
the finest mold, from which the gallant riders parted, 
like the Hungarians more recently, with tears. Na- 
poleon assured the emperor of Austria, and cabinet of 



210 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

England, that in this conquest, " he had only in view 
to obtain pledges for the evacuation of Malta, and to 
secure the execution of the treaty of Amiens." 

" These successes enabled Napoleon to feed great 
bodies of his army at the expense of others, and to 
cripple the commerce of England, by shutting up her 
communication with many of the best markets on the 
continent. But he now recurred to his favorite 
scheme, that of invading the island itself, and so strik- 
ing the fatal blow at the heart of his last and greatest 
enemy. Troops to the amount of one hundred and 
sixty thousand, were mustered in camps along the 
French and Dutch coasts, and vast flotillas, meant to 
convey them across the channel, were formed and con- 
stantly manoeuvred in various ports, that of Boulogne 
being the chief station. 

"The spirit of England on the other hand, was effec- 
tually stirred. Her fleets to the amount of not less 
than five hundred ships of war, traversed the seas in 
all directions, blockaded^ the harbors of the countries 
in which the power of the consul was predominant, 
and from time to time made inroads into the French 
ports, cutting out and destroying the shipping, and 
crippling the flotillas. At home, the army, both regu- 
lar and irregular, was recruited and strengthened to 
an unexampled extent. Camps were formed along 
the English coasts opposite to France, and the king in 
person was continually to be seen in the middle of 
them. By night, beacons blazed on every hill-top 
throughout the island ; and the high resol ution of tho 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 211 

citizen-soldiery was attested on numberless occasiong 
of false alarm, by the alacrity with which the}^ marched 
on the points of supposed danger. There never was 
a time in which the national enthusiasm ^as more 
ardent and concentrated ; and the i-cturn of Pitt to 
the prime ministry was considered as the last and best 
pledge that the councils of the sovereign were to ex- 
hibit vigor commensurate with the nature of the 
crisis. The regular army in Britain amounted, ere 
long, to one hundred thousand ; the militia to eighty 
thousand ; and of volunteer troops there were not less 
than three hundred and fifty thousand in arms. 

" Soult, Ney, Davoust, and Victor were in command 
of the army designed to invade England, and the 
chief consul personally repaired to Boulogne and in- 
spected both the troops and the flotilla. He constantly 
gave out that it was his fixed purpose to make his at- 
tempt by means of the flotilla alone, but while he thus 
endeavored to inspire his enemy with false security, for 
Nelson had declared this scheme of a boat invasion to 
be mad^ and staked his whole reputation on its miser- 
able and immediate failure, if attempted, the consul 
was in fact providing indefatigably a fleet of men 
of war, designed to protect and cover the voyage 
These ships were preparing in different ports of France 
and Spain, to the number of fifty : Bonaparte intended 
them to steal out to sea individually or in small squad- 
rons, rendezvous at Martinico, and, returning thence 
in a body, sweep the channel free of the English, for 
such a space of. time at least as might suflSce for tb© 



212 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

execution of his great purpose. These designs, how- 
ever, were from day to day thwarted by the watcliful 
zeal of Nelson, and the other English admirals ; who 
observed Brest, Toulon, Genoa, and the harbors of 
Spain so closely, that no squadron nor hardly a single 
vessel could force a passage into the Atlantic." 

Still the consul hoped to take advantage of the fre- 
quent calms in the channel, which would leave British 
ships motioaless, while his flat-bottomed boats could 
be rowed rapidly across ; or if all other means failed, 
he purposed to watch the recurrence of a tempest, 
which should comjoel the English vessels to stand out 
to sea, and then attempt the transit when it subsided, 
and before the foe could return. In the most favora- 
ble condition of things, the truth of Napoleon's remark 
to Lord Whitworth, was apparent : " It is an awful 
temerity, my lord, to attempt the invasion of En- 
gland." Meanwhile, another great conspiracy was 
formed against the first consul. The theatre of it was 
London, and the leader Count d'Artois, with whom 
were 'combined French royalists in the English capi- 
tal. More than a hundred daring men, under Georges 
Cadoudal, were to reach France secretly, and lying in 
wait near Malmaison, assassinate the first consul when 
leaving or returning to his mansion. To insure suc- 
cess in the plot to restore the Bourbon dynasty, the 
aid of the army was indispensable. This object was 
sought through Moreau, the hero of Hohenlinden, 
who, jealous of Napoleon, had become hostile and 
revengeful. General Pichegru, who escaped from 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAIiTE. 213 

bauishment in Cayenne, and reached London, a man- 
of popular talent, and still a favorite with many of the 
people, was selected to confer with Moreau. Early in 
1804, Napoleon suspected some grand movement was 
in progress to undermine his throne. At this crisis, a 
spy who had been arrested, and was on the way to 
execution, confessed that he was one of Cadoudal's 
men, and revealed the whole conspiracy. In Febru- 
ary, Moreau was arrested. General Pichegru, who 
eluded pursuit a few weeks longer, while asleep, with 
his weapons by his side, was suddenly taken by the 
gensd'armes, who rushing upon him, boimd the strug- 
gling assassin. Of the Bourbon princes who were 
suspected of being involved in the deeply laid plot, 
was the Duke d'Enghien, grandson of the prince of 
Conde, a promising scion of royalty, who was at Etten- 
heim, near Strasburg. Circumstances connected with 
the plan of destroying the consul, made it strongly 
probable that he was acquainted with it. Orders were 
issued for a body of dragoons to cross the Khine into 
the German terntor}'', press on to Ettenheim, arrest 
the duke, and remove him to Strasburg. An apology 
was sent to the grand duke of Baden, for the entrance 
upon his territory. The prince was seized in bed and 
hurried away. He denied any sympathies with the 
conspirators, but avowed his adherence to the former 
monarchy, and enmity towards Napoleon. When ar- 
raigned, he earnestly pleaded for an interview with 
the consul. This was refused, and before M. Eealj 
counselor of state, commissioned to examine him in 



'Hi LIFE OF NAPOLJSON BONAPARTE. 

Napoleon's behalf, arrived, he was led forth by torch- 
light, and his career finished by a discharge of mus- 
ketry, from a file of soldiers awaiting his appearance. 

The death of this gallant 3''oung Bourbon went over 
Eiiro])e with electric power. The emperor of Kussia, 
and the kings of Denmark and Sweden, hung their 
courts in mourning, and through their diplomatic rep- 
resentatives remonstrated against the tra.gical deed. 
With all the reasons, suggested by the perils around 
the first consul, for summary justice, the execution of 
the duke will be regarded as a sanguinary deed of a 
revolutionary period, for which Napoleon was respon- 
sible ; but there is not evidence satisfactory to the un 
biassed mind, that he had decided to execute the duke, 
or knew, until too late, that such would be the prompt 
action of the court. Eetaliation was, however, the 
law of Napoleon's dealings with his foes, and his blows 
fell when and where they would ' be most deeply felt. 

Chateaubriand, who was then high in favor with 
Napoleon, and had just been appointed minister pleni- 
potentiary to the Vallais, instantly resigned his ap- 
pointment on hearing of the duke's death. This was 
a strong rebuke to Bonaparte, for as Bourrienne re- 
marks, " it said plainly, ' You have committed a crime, 
and I will not serve a government which is stained 
Avith the blood of a Bourbon !' " In England, Bona- 
parte was constantly styled in some of the leading 
journals, " the assassin of the Duke d'Eoghien." On 
the fatal morning of the 21st of March, before he had 
finished his toilet, Jose|)hine rushed into the room 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 215 

from her own distant apartments, with her counte- 
nance bathed in tears, and every personal care neglected, 
crying, " The Duke d'Enghien is dead ! oh, my friend, 
what hast thou done?" and threw herself on his bosom. 
Napoleon is said to have shown extraordinary emotion, 
and to have exclaimed, "The wretches! they have 
been too hasty I" Napoleon was not naturally cruel ; 
he pardoned many of his guilty enemies; but he 
neglected nothing which advanced his lofty jjims ; and 
without the shadow of doubt, desired the death of a 
Bourbon, to strike terror to the hearts of the royal 
assassins, who thirsted for his blood. 

A few days later, Pichegru was found dead in 
prison, with a handkerchief around his neck ; whether 
a suicide or a murdered man is unknown, but probably 
the former, 

Moreaa was tried, and condemned to two years of 
exile ; and Georges Cadoudal followed in the public 
trial, and with eighteen others was condemned to die 
The defeated conspiracy confirmed Napoleon's author- 
ity, and prepared the way for the last stride toward 
royalty — the right of succession to the crown in the 
Bonaparte family. April 30th, a month after the 
Duke d'Enghien was shot, Curue proposed to the 
Tribune, " that it was time to bid adieu to political 
illusions — that victory had brought back tranquillity 
— the finances of the country had been restored, and 
the Jaws renovated — and that it was a matter of duty 
to secure those blessings to the nation in future, by 
rendering the supreme power hereditary in the person 



216 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

and family of Napoleon. Sacli was tlie universal de- 
sire of tlie army and of the people. The title of em- 
peror, in ]ais opinion, was that by which Napoleon 
should be hailed, as best corespondifig to the dignity 
of the nation." 

Carnot, as before, when the question of the consul- 
ate was under discussion, alone dissented.^ He ad- 
mitted the greatness of JSTapoleon, and his indipensable 
power; but added: "Fabius, Camillus, Oincinnatus 
were dictators also. Why should not Bonaparte, like 
them, lay down despotic power, after the holding of it 
had ceased to be necessary to the general good? Let 
the services of a citizen be what they might, was there 
to be no limit to the gratitude of the nation ? But at 
all events, even granting that Bonaparte himself could 
not be too highly rewarded or too largely trusted, 
why commit the fortunes of posterity to chance? 
Why forget that Vespasian was the father of Do- 
ra itian, Germanicus of Caligula, Marcus Aurelius of 
Commodas?" 

The senate passed unanimously the decree, and May 
18th, 1804, proceeded in a body to present it to JSTapo- 
leon, and salute him Emperor of France. 

The decree immediately appeared, published in the 
name of " Napoleon, by the grace of Grod, and by the 
constitutions of the Eepublic, Emperor of the French," 
and was sent down to the departments, and was rati- 
fied by a majority of the popular vote, although but a 
small part of the nation was represented at the ballot- 
box. The empire was to descend in the male line; 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 217 

. and in case of having no son, Napoleon might adopt 
any son or grandson of his brothers ; but in the fail- 
ure of such provision, Joseph and Louis Bonaparte 
were named as next in order of succession. Lucien 
and Jerome were omitted, because the emperor was 
displeased with their matrimonial affairs, and not in 
this slight alone made them feel his anger. The 
members of the Bonaparte family were declared princes 
royal of France. The- senate was the servant of the 
emperor, over whose decision to the contrary he had 
the right to publish a law as constitutional ; the legis- 
lative branch, whose president he appointed, was en- 
tirely dependent upon the royal will ; and the liberty 
of the press was annihilated. 

May 18th, 1804, Napoleon displayed the imperial 
insignia, and named Oambaceres, his former colleague, 
Chancellor, and Le Brun Treasurer of the Empire. 
His group of splendid generals were created marshals. 
The theater of enthusiasm was not now in the walks 
of the people, but at Boulogne, in the camps of the 
soldiers. There on a magnificent throne on the mar- 
gin of the ocean, he distributed the crosses of the 
Legion of Honor, amid the shouts of his great army. 
Congratulations poured in from the kings of Emrope, 
excepting Eussia, Sweden, and England. 

Napoleon, to complete his claim to hereditary power, 
sent a request to Pius VII. to repair to Paris and crown 
him — even in this proud act, subordinating the Church 
of Eome to his sceptre. The unwilling Pope obeyed, 
and December 2d the coronation was performed. 

10 



218 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

It surpassed in magnificence all that had ever pre- 
ceded it. The dress of the empress was in itself ele- 
gant, and arranged with that taste in which she ex- 
celled all the ladies of her time, the effect must have 
been unequaled. A drapery of white satin, embroi- 
dered on the skirt with gold, and on the breast with 
diamonds; a mantle of the richest crimson velvet 
lined with ermine and satm, embroidered with gold; 
a girdle of gold so pure as to be quite elastic, and set 
with large diamonds, formed her dress ; and on her 
head she wore a splendid diadem of pearls and dia- 
monds, the workmanship of which had employed the 
first artists of the capital. How her thoughts must 
have reverted to her first marriage, when, as she used 
to relate v/ith great simplicity, she carried the few 
trinkets given her by Beauharnais, for some days in 
her pocket to exhibit to admiring acquaintances. 

Bonaparte'^' dress was quite as gorgeous, and must 
have reminded him that he had indeed assumed the 
weight of empire, for the mantle alone is said to have 
weighed eighty pounds. Indeed, he was by no means 
elated with this display of finer}^, but submitted to it 
as part of the system of personal aggrandizement, to 
which he adhered at whatever sacrifice of comfort. 
We can readily imagine that the hardy soldier must 
have been much less at his ease, in his white silk 
stockings, and white buskins laced and embroidered 
with gold, than when shortly afterward he appeared 
on the plain of Marengo, on the anniversary of his 
great victory there, in the identical cap and cloak 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 219 

pierced with bullet holes which he had worn in that 
battle, and there, surrounded hy thirty thousand of his 
troops, distributed the decorations of the Legion of 
Honor. 

The imperial carriage, paneled with mirrors, and 
drawn by eight horses like the ancient regal coaches 
of the empire, attended by horsemen to the number 
of ten thousand, and double lines o^ infantry a mile 
and a half in length, and gazed at by four hundred 
thousand spectators, proceeded to the church of Notre 
Dame, which had been magnificently embellished for 
the occiision. The incessant thunder of artillery rolled 
over that tumultuous sea of humanity, whose shouts 
rose in one loud acclamation. While the grand pro- 
cession was slowly moving forward-, the clouds which 
had hung darkly over the city suddenly parted, and 
the clear sunlight fell upon the gay uniform, golden 
trappings, and burnished arms, till the reflection was 
a blended brightness that gave the finishing halo of 
glory to this regal march. Arriving at the archiepis- 
copal palace, the cortege paused, while beneath a 
high arciiway from which floated the banners of the 
Legion of Honor, the royal group entered the cathedral, 
where a throne was prepared for the most influential 
and remarkable sovereign of Europe. It was placed 
opposite the principal entrance, on a platform whose 
elevation was reached by twenty-two semi-circular 
steps, richly carpeted and gleaming with golden bees. 
Here were standing the high ofllcers of the realm in 
Rolemn state. The drapery of the throne was crimson 



220 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

velvet, under a canopy of which appeared Napoleon 
and Josephine, attended by his brothers, and the mem- 
bers of the imperial family. Four Lours were con- 
sumed in the religious services by a choir of three 
hundred, and martial airs from a band whose number 
was still greater, filling the wide arches of that temple 
with a tide of harmony such as never before waa 
poured over a silent throng within its consecrated 
walls. At length Napoleon arose, and taking the 
diadem of wrought gold, calmly placed it upon his 
brow. Eesolved to impress the people from the com- 
mencement of his reign, that he ruled in his own right, 
the Eoman See was permitted to do no more than con- 
secrate the bauble that made him king — Napoleon 
calmly placed the crown upon his own ample brow. 
Then raising the crown designed for Josephine to his 
head, he passed it to her own. Josephine, always 
natural, and therefore always interesting, with folded 
arms kneeled gracefully before him, then rising fixed 
upoQ him a look of tenderness and gratitude, while 
tears fell from her eyes — the lovely queen and de- 
voted sacrifice, soon to pass from the throne to the 
altar of ambition. The Bible was laid upon fhe 
throne ; Napoleon placed his hand upon it, and in a 
voice which was distinctly heard throughout the im- 
mense edifice, pronounced the customary oaths of 
office. A simultaneous shout broke from all the vast 
assembly, Avhich was echoed by the crowds without; 
while the thunders of artillery proclaimed to more 
distant places that Bonaparte was Emperor of France. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 221 

Napoleon, ten years before, was a captain in the 
service of the republic ; he had shaken a continent 
with his armies ; and at length sat doAvn upon the 
throne of an em2:)ire. Within the fifth part of man's 
allotted age, the Corsican youth, hating warmly the 
French, had become a devoted republican — adopted 
the despised nation as his own — risen from a lieuten- 
ant's position in the army to its head — conquered the 
fairest part of Europe — and now swayed over all, a 
monarch's sceptre, receiving the willing homage of 
the millions who so recently shouted frantically, " Vive 
la Rejjuhlique /" 

The marvelous history is without a parallel in the 
annals of time. It must be conceded, that the royalty 
of Napoleon was vastly superior to that of the Bour- 
bons. The privileged classes — the nobility — the cor- 
rupt officials, and priesthood — were no longer the 
favorites of a voluptuous king. Personal security 
from oppression among the masses — ^religious tolera- 
tion — and equitable taxation — were secured. It is also 
true, that France was unprepared for the unfettered 
freedom we enjoy. But all this does not alter the fact, 
that Napoleon made no efforts, either to prepare the 
people for republican institutions, or retain a vestige 
of the brief republic. By decrees, and intermarriage 
of his family — and every act — his purpose, as he ex- 
pressed it, to rule the world with or without England, 
was clearly declared. Then again, he did not know 
bow soon after his death, a worse than Louis XVII. 
vould ascend the throne. There was a forceful view 



222 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

given of the emperor's ambition and betrayal of hu- 
manity in Carnot's question: " Why forget that Ves- 
pasian was the father of Domitian, Germanieus of 
Caligula, Marcus Aurelius of Coramodus?" 

The coronation at Paris was followed, very naturally, 
by a petition from the Italian senators, that Napoleon 
accept the iron crown of Charlemagne, worn by the 
Lombard kings. He immediately set out for Milan, 
accompanied with Josephine, 

It was decided to cross the Alps by Mont Cenxs, and 
for the adventure two elegant sedans were forwarued 
from Turin. There was no grand highway, as soon 
afterward, bridging the chasms, and the traveler, like 
the wild goat, had often to climb the perilous steep in 
a path untrodden before. Josephine avoided the 
beautiful conveyance ordered expressly for her, and 
preferred, whenever possible, to advance by her elastic 
step; to walk beside Napoleon, breathe the bracing air, 
and behold with kindling eye the sea of glittering 
summits, the gorges and their foaming torrents, and 
the ice-fields stretching away in cold and majestic 
desolation. That j)assage was a novel and sublime 
spectacle. The sovereign of an empire, with his 
charming queen, toiling up the heights over which he 
had led conquering armies — his thoughts busy with 
those mighty scenes — hers wandering over the waste 
of wonders, and above them through eternity, of which 
the solemn peaks seemed silent yet eloquent witnesses. 

From Turin the tourists' next place of rendezvous 
was Alessandria, near the plain of Marengo ; and he 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 223 

could not resist the inducement to stand once more 
upon that field which had rocked to one of the world's 
decisive battles, and sent his name like a spell-word 
around the globe. He ordered from Paris the old uni- 
form and hat which he had worn on the day of con- 
flict amid the smoke of the terrible struggle, and then, 
while in fancy he saw again the meeting battalions, as 
when he wrung from the outnumbering foe victories 
that astonished the heroes of every realm, he reviewed 
with imperial dignity the national troops in Italy. 
Reaching Milan, May 26, 1805, the ancient crown was 
brought from seclusion, and the dust in which it had 
been entombed removed from the neglected symbol 
of royalty. In the grand cathedral of the city, the 
second in magnificence to St. Peter's, Napoleon receiv- 
ing the crown from the archbishop's hand, placed it, 
as on a former occasion, upon his own head. 

He repeated, during the ceremony, in Italian, these 
words — "God has given it — woe to the gainsayer;" 
raising the iron circlet also to the brow of Josephine. 
The assemblage of nobility and beauty dispersed ; Na- 
poleon calmly received their display of loyalty, and 
the gay Milanese again, with wonted hilarity, thronged 
the market-place and busy streets of the capital. 

Napoleon's title was now Emperor of the French 
and King of Italy. 

The Ligurian republic sent the doge to Milan to 
offer congratulations, and desire the addition of their 
territory to the empire of France. This was granted, 
and became a serious affair in the subsequent course 



224 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

of events. Eugene Beauharnois, Josephine's son, was 
appointed viceroy at Milan. 

Here the first intimations of threatening dissatis- 
faction, on the part of Austria and Kussia, reached the 
emperor. Although he continued his tour through 
the peninsula, so rich in picturesque scenery and 
historic recollections — in every thing that awakens 
thought and kindles the imagination — his mind was 
occupied with coming events, whose foreshadowing he 
beheld in the blackening horizon of the north. Arriv- 
ing at Genoa, the tidings of a coalition were confirmed, 
based in part at least, it was apparent, upon the coro- 
nation in Milan. The departure was impetuous, f jr tlie 
eagle eye of Napoleon saw clearly the hastening tem- 
pest, and he caught in fancy the thunders of its terri- 
ble shock. The imperial carriage glided like a spirit 
along the highway, and the lash fell with increasing 
rapidity uj)on the foaming steeds. When for a mo- 
ment there was a halt to change the horses, water was 
dashed on the smoking axle, and again the wheels re- 
volved, till they seemed self-moving, while their low 
hum only broke the silence, except the occasional 
shout of Napoleon, " On I On I we do not move 1" 

He reached Paris, and on the 29th of January, 
1805, in his new character of emperor, addressed a 
letter to King George III., in person, and was answer- 
ed, as before, by the British Secretary of State for for- 
eign affairs; who said that in the present state of 
relations between the cabinet of St. James and that of 
St. Petersburg, it wa& impossible for the former to 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 225 

open any negotiation without tlie consent of the 
latter. 

This suflSicientlj indicated a fact of which Napoleon 
had just suspicion some time before. The murder of 
the duke d'Enghien had been regarded with horror 
by the young emperor of Russia ; he had remonstrated 
vigorously, and his reclamations had been treated with 
indifference. The king of Sweden, immediately after 
he heard of the catastrophe at Vincennes, had made 
known his sentiments to the czar ; a strict alliance had 
been signed between those two courts about a fort- 
night ere Napoleon wrote to the king of England; 
and it was obvious that the northern powers had, in 
effect, resolved to take part with Great Britain in her 
struggle against France. 

The cabinets of London, Petersburg, and Stockholm 
were now parties in a league which had avowedly the 
following objects: — To restore the independence of 
Holland and Switzerland ; to free the north of Ger- 
many from the presence of French troops ; to procure 
the restoration of Piedmont to the king of Sardinia; 
and, finally, the evacuation of Italy by Napoleon. 
Until, by the attainment of these objects, the sway of 
France should be reduced to limits compatible with the 
independence of the other European states, no peace 
was to be signed by any of the contracting powers ; 
and, during several months, every means was adopted 
to procure the association of Austria and Prussia. But 
the latter of these sovereigns had a strong French 

narty in his council, and though personally hostil? to 

10* 



226 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Napoleon, could not as yet count on being supported 
in a war against France by the hearty good- will of an 
undivided people. Austria, on the other hand, had 
been grievously Aveakened by the campaign of Maren- 
go, and hesitated, on prudential grounds, to commit 
herself once more to the hazard of arms. 

The czar visited Berlin ; and the two sovereigns 
repaired to the vault of Frederic the Great, and there 
swore over his ashes, to strike for the independence of 
Germany. Austria, upon hearing of the scenes at 
Milan, yielded to the policy of England, and suddenly 
entered, with eighty thousand troops, the field of strife 
— an opening campaign of carnage— for which the 
British king and cabinet were chiefly responsible. 
The combined armies swept over Bavaria, an ally of 
France, and while the elector begged to be let alone 
in his neutrality, endeavored to compel him to join 
the alhes. He withdrew into Franconia; and the 
enemy taking possession of Munich and Ulm, pene- 
trated the Black Forest, and fortified their position by 
commanding the outposts bordering on the valley of 
the Rhine. 

Napoleon was not, as anticipated, taken by surprise, 
and overwhelmed in the weakness of unavailable 
strength. He had issued orders to the commanders 
of the array of invasion, to be ready, upon the first 
hostile movement of Austria, to advance against her. 
His vast arrangements went forward with usual pre- 
cision and haste — the army went wild with enthusiasm 
in view of the campaign ; and the marvelous activity 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 227 

of their leader made liim their wonder and their idol. 
Twenty thousand carriages conveyed the battalions, as 
if by a magical flight, from Boulogne to the beautiful 
Khine, upon whose green banks a hecatomb of youth- 
ful soldiers, who had impatiently waited for the con- 
flict, were trodden in gore beneath the iron hoof. 

When Napoleon appeared before his army, and the 
shouts of the welcome had subsided, he made this stir- 
ring address : " Soldiers ! the campaign of the third 
coalition has commenced. Austria has passed the Inn, 
violated its engagements, attacked and chased our ally 
from his capital. We will not again make peace with- 
out sufficient guaranties. You are but the advance- 
guard of the great people. You have forced marches 
to undergo, fatigues and privations to endure. But, 
whatever obstacles we may encounter, we shall over- 
come them, and never taste of repose till we have 
placed our eagles on the territory of our enemies." 

Mack, the Austrian general, was not equal in mili- 
tary skill to those who preceded him in command. 
While he was anticipating an assault in front of the 
Ulm, the main body of the French troops entered the 
German dominions, and crossing the Danube, appeared 
in his rear, and cut off his communication with 
Vienna. 

" Napoleon's gigantic plan was completely success- 
ful. The Austrians were surrounded beyond all hope 
of escape. In twenty days, without a single pitched 
battle, by a series of marches and a few skirmishes, 
the Austrian army of eighty thousand men was utterly 



228 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

destroyed. A few thousand only, in fugitive "bands 
eluded the grasp of the victor, and fled through the 
defiles of the mountains. The masterly manoeuvres 
of the French columns had alread}'' secur^ thirty 
thousand prisoners almost without bloodshed. \ Thirty- 
six thousand were shut up in Ulm. Their doom was 
sealed.'' 

The emperor summoned the Austrian commander 
to surrender. Notwithstanding the expected reinforce- 
ments by the advance of the Kussian army, and a full 
supply of stores for the garrison. Mack, who, on the 
16th of October, prepared for desperate defense, over- 
come with his fears, upon the 17th signed articles of 
capitulation. Prince Maurice was sent to the French 
camp to offer the evacuation of Ulm, if the troops 
would be allowed to retire into Austria. 

Napoleon, with a smile, assured the envoy that such 
a sacrifice would be absurd, when a week would secure 
the surrender without conditions. The 20th of Oc- 
tober poured its cold and cloudless splendor upon the 
more than thirty thousand soldiers, who marching 
through the gates of Dim, laid down their glittering 
arms at the feet of Napoleon. Turning to the impos- 
ing array of captive of&cers, he said, " Gentlemen, war 
has its chances. Often victorious, you must expect 
sometimes to be vanquished. Your master wages 
against me an unjust war. I say it candidly, I know 
not for what I am fighting. I know not what he re- 
quires of me. He has wished to remind me that 1 
was once a soldier. I trust he will find that I have 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 229 

not forgotten my original avocation. I want nothing 
on the continent. I desire, ships, colonies, and com- 
merce. Their acquisition would be as advantageous 
to you as to me." 

This splendid campaign spread unutterable joy over 
the fermy and nation. Like the summary of successes 
on the flag sent to the Directory after the Corsican's 
first triumph, Napoleon gave an eloquent outline of 
his victories in an address which was a tocsin of thrill- 
ing import to Europe : 

" Soldiers of the Grand Army — In fifteen days 
we have finished our campaign. What we proposed 
to do has been done. We have chased the Austrian 
troops from Bavaria, and restored our ally to the 
sovereignty of his dominions. 

" That army which with so much presumption and 
imprudence marched upon our frontiers, is annihilated. 

" But what does this signify to England ? She has 
gained her object. We are no longer at Boulogne, 
and her subsidies will not be the less great. 

" Of a hundred thousand men who composed that 
army, sixty thousand are prisoners; but they will sup- 
ply our conscripts in the labor of husbandry. 

" Two hundred pieces of cannon, ninety flags, and 
all their generals are in our power. Not more than 
fifteen thousand men have escaped. 

"Soldiers! I announced to you a great battle; but 
thanks to the ill-devised combinations of the enemy, I 
was able to secure the desired result without any dan- 
ger ; and, what is unexampled in the history of na 



230 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPAKTE. 

tions, these results have been gained at the loss of 
scarcely fifteen hundred men, killed and wounded. 

•' Soldiers ! this success is due to your entire confi- 
dence in your emperor, to your patience in support- 
ing fatigue and privations of every kind, and to your 
remarkable intrepidity. 

" But we will not stop here. You are impatient to 
commence a second campaign, 

" The Eussian army which the gold of England has 
brought from the extremity of the world, we have to 
serve in the same manner. 

" In the conflict in which we are now to be engaged, 
the honor of the French infantry is especially con- 
cerned. We shall then see decided, for the second 
time, that question which has already been decided 
in Switzerland and Holland; namely, whether the 
French infantry is the first or second in Europe ? 

" There are no generals among them, in contend- 
ing against whom I can acquire any glory All I 
wish is to obtain the victory with the least possible 
bloodshed. My soldiers are my children." 

When advancing into the heart of Germany, the 
neutral territory of Anspach, belonging to Prussia, 
was violated, threatening immediate war with that 
power; but this grand result hushed the tones of in- 
dignation, and kept the king in dread of the avenger. 
Key, on the right of Napoleon, was successful in the 
Tyrol ; and Murat, on his left, had watched the Austri- 
ans retreating to Bohemia ; and both rejoined jSTapo' 
leon, with Augereau's fresh reserve from France, who 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 231 

guarded the mountain passes at Voralberg. He was 
thus prepared to march toward the German capital. 
Meanwhile, the Czar of Kussia, with one hundred and 
sixteen thousand troops, had advanced to Moravia 
and gathered around the hosiile standard the avail- 
able force of Austria. England sent thirty thousand 
men to Hanover to press on to the field of conflict. 

The French army, amid the astonishment of kings, 
fired with their leader's spirit, swept forward to- 
ward Vienna. November 7th, Francis fled from 
his defenseless capital, and repaired to the head-quar- 
ters of the czar. A general panic seized the na- 
tion. On the 13th of November, the exultant army 
of Napoleon entered the capital, and took possession 
of the rich supply of stores and arms in the arsenals 
of the empire. Here he heard of the terrible defeat of 
the united naval force of France and Spain. The ti- 
dings added fuel to the flame of determined vengeance 
upon his combined enemies. Although he was many 
hundred miles from Paris, on the verge of winter, in- 
stead of halting to fortify a position of defense, he 
gave orders to march onward to meet the enemy. He 
has been severly condemned for "the rashness of thus 
passing the Danube into Moravia, while the archduke 
Ferdinand was organizing the Bohemians on his left, 
the archdukes Charles and John in Hungary, with 
still formidable and daily increasing forces on his 
right, the population of Vienna and the surrounding 
territories ready to rise, in case of any disaster, in his 
rear ; and Prussia as decidedly hostile in heart as she 



232 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BOKAPAllTE. 

was wavering in policy. The French leader did no* 
disguise from liimself the risk of his adventure ; but 
he considered it better to run all that risk, than to 
linger in Yienna until the armies in Hungary and Bo- 
hemia should have had time to reinforce the two em- 
perors." 

His correspondence affords an interesting survey 
of his movements, an estimate of his marshals, and of 
his own unaided genius : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"SCHONBRUNN, Noyember 15, 1805. 

"My Brother — The bulletin has told you all that 
I found in Yienna.* I manoeuvre to-day against the 
Russian army, and have not been satisfied with Ber- 
nadotte;f perhaps the fault is in his health. 

" When I let him enter Munich and Salzbourg, and 
enjoy the glory of these great expeditions without his 
having to fire a gun, or to endure any of the fatiguing 
services of the army, I had a right to expect that he 
would want neither activity nor zeal. He has lost me 
a day, and on a day may depend the destiny of the 
world. Kot a man would have escaped from me. I 
hope that he will repair his fault to-morrow, by a more 
active movement. I want Junot. Every day con- 
vinces me more and more that the men whom I have 

* An immense arsenal, containing one hundred thousand muskets, 
two thousand pieces of cannon, and vast stores of ammunition, waa 
found there. — Tb. 

f Joseph's brother-in-law. — Tr. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 233 

formed are incomparably the best. I continue to be 
pleased with Murat, Lannes, Davoust, Soult, Nej, and 
Marmont. I hear nothing of Augereau's march. 
Massena has behaved himself indifferently. He made 
bad dispositions, and got himself beaten at Caldiero. 
Prince Charles's army is advancing on me. The Vene- 
tian coiintry must by this time be evacuated. It may 
be as well if you let him know, through our common 
friends, that I am not very well pleased, I will not say 
with his courage, but with the ability which he has 
shown. This will rouse his zeal, and may stop the 
disorder which is beginning in his army. I know 
that a contribution of 400,000 francs has been imposed 
on the Austrian portion of Verona. I intend to make 
the generals and officers who serve me well, so rich 
that they will have no pretext for dishonoring by their 
cupidity the noblest of all professions, and losing the 
respect of their soldiers. General Dejean is absurd 
about arming Ancona : his reasons are contemptible. 
Support the Constable.* All the arguments that De- 
jean uses are good for nothing. It is a habit of en- 
gineer officers to wish to show their clearness ; I choose 
it to be armed, and that is enough. The Emperor of 
Germany writes beautiful letters to me ; but though 
he has allowed me to occupy his capital, he has not 
yet shaken off the inflaence of Russia. Just now he 
is supposed to be with the Emperor Alexander, but 
some day or other he must make up his mind." 

* Prince Louis Bonaparte. 



234 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

A few days later, lie reports progress, and dictates 
dispatches to appear in the official paper. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Beunn, November 24, 1805. 

" My Bkother — I inform you that the Emperor 
of Germany has just sent to me M. de Stadion 
his minister in Russia, and Lieutenant-G-eneral Comte 
de Giulay, with full powers to negotiate, conclude, 
and sign a definite peace between France and Aus- 
tria. I have given similar powers to M. de Talley- 
rand. You will state this in the Moniteur^ and add 
this paragraph: 'It is to be hoped that the nego- 
tiation will produce peace, but this hope must not 
slacken the zeal of our administrators ; on the con- 
trary, it is an additional motive for hastening the 
conscripts on their march, according to the old pro- 
verb, Si vis pacem^ para helium. His Majesty recom- 
mends the Ministers of War and of the Interior to 
press on their preparaitons.' 

" You will insert as news from Vienna, ' Kegotia- 
tions have begun. It is said that the Emperor of the 
French is going to Italy. It is also said that he in- 
tends to appear in Paris when least expected thera 
"We have not yet seen him.' " 

The French continued to advance. 

''Napoleon's preparations were as follows: bis 
left, under Lannes, lay at Santon, a strongly fortified 
position ; Soult commanded the right wing ; the 2en- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 235 

tre, Tinder Bernadotte, liad with them Murat and all 
the cavalry. Behind the line lay the reserve, consist- 
ing of twenty thousand, ten thousand of whom were 
of the imperial guard, under Oudenot ; and here Na- 
poleon himself took his station. But besides these 
open demonstrations, Davoust, with a division of horse 
and another of foot, lay behind the convent of Ray- 
gern, considerably in the rear of the French right — 
being there placed by the emperor, in consequence of 
a false movement, into which he, with a seer-like 
sagacit3^, foresaw the enemy might, in all likelihood, 
be tempted." Napoleon was on the field of Auster- 
litz, confronting the superior, confident army of the 
allied enemy. It was December 1st ; and no sooner 
had he discerned their plan of attack, than he ex- 
claimed, with delight, "To-morrow, before nightfall, 
that army shall be my own." The day was devoted 
to untiring preparation for the carnage at hand. 
Amid the gloom of night, as he rode over the field of 
encampment, a sudden shout, and torch-light illumina- 
tions greeted him. It was the anniversary of his im- 
perial honors — the first celebration of his coronation. 
The enthusiastic soldiers assured him the dawning 
day should be one of glorious commemoration. " Only 
promise ns," cried a veteran grenadier, " that you will 
keep yourself out of the fire." 

He replied, in language repeated in the proclama- 
tion immediately issued to the army : "I will do so ; 
I shall be with the reserve until you need us." This 
entire confidence between Napoleon and his vast 



236 LIFE OF NAPOLEON I50NAPAETE. 

armies, was sublime, and -without a similar instance of 
devotion in tlie annals of wkr. 

The unclouded sunrise was hailed with rapture, and 
ever after called " the sun of Austerlitz." Soon the 
advancing columns of the czar disclosed the certainty 
that they had been taken in the snare, and were mak- 
ing an onset upon the right, to which the emperor 
had hoped to direct their attention. Davoust sustained 
the shock, while Soult rushed into the gap made by 
the regiments which had left the heights in the very 
centre of the allied host, Kapoleon exclaimed, " Sol- 
diers ! the enemy has imprudently exposed himself to 
your blows. We shall finish this war with a clap of 
thunder !" It was on the hill of Pratzen, that the sec- 
ond army, which for a moment beat back the French, 
lost the day. The right wing gave way, and then the 
victors poured the tide of slaughter upon the left, till in 
ghastly confusion of the dead, the dying, and the flying, 
the -mighty struggle closed, and another stupendous 
triumph shed its fearful glory upon the arms of ISTapo- 
leon. A grand division of the foe were making their 
escape across a frozen lake which swayed to their 
tramp, when the batteries of the conqueror thundered, 
and the balls and shells falling among the fugitives, 
tore in fragments the surface of ice, engulfing, as the 
Red Sea did the Egyptians, the entire throng, with 
their heavy ordnance and neighing steeds. The 
following letter gives Napoleon's account of the 
affair : 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 237 



NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

AusTERLiTZ, December 3, 1805. 

My Brother, — I hope that bj the time this courier 
i'-^ches you my aide-de-camp Lebrun, whom I sent 
of!' from the field, of battle, will have got to Paris. 
After some days of manoeuvres, I had yesterday a de- 
cisive battle. I put to flight the allied army, com- 
manded by the two Emperors of Germany and Eussia 
in person. It consisted of eighty thousand Eussians 
and thirty thousand Austrians. I have taken about 
forty thousand prisoners, among whom are twenty 
Eussian generals, forty colors, one hundred pieces ol 
cannon^ and all the standards of the Eussian imperial 
guards. The whole army has covered itself with 
glory. 

The enemy has left at least from twelve to fifteen 
tliousand men on the field. I do not yet know my 
own loss. I estimate it at eight or nine hundred 
killed, and twice as many wounded. A whole column 
of the enemy threw itself into a lake, and the greater 
part of them were drowned. I fancy that I still hear 
the cries of these wretches whom it was impossible tc 
save.'^ The two emperors are in a bad situation. You 

* This is a remarkable passage. The inference which Napoleon in- 
tended Joseph to draw is, that he would have saved the Russians from 
being drowned, if he had been able. But, in fact, they were drowned 
intentionally, and by his orders. 

This is the account of the truusactiou by M. Thiers : — " The flying 
Russians tlirew themselves on the frozen lakes. The ice gave way in 
some places, but was firm in others, and afforded an asylum to a crowd 
of fugitives. Napoleon, from the hill of Pratzen, overlooking the lalies, 



238 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

may print tlie substance of this, but not as extracted 
from a letter of mine : it would not be suitable. You 
will receive the bulletin to-morrow. Though I have 
been sleeping for the last week in the open air, my 
health is good. To-night I sleep in a bed in the fine 
country house of M. de Kaunitz, near Austerlitz, and 
I have put on a clean shirt, which I have not done for 
a week. The guard of the Emperor of Eussia was de- 
molished. Prince Repnin, who commanded it, was 
taken, with a part of his men, and all his standards 
and artillery. 

" The Emperor of Germany, this morning, sent to me 
Prince Lichtenstein to ask for an interview. It is pos- 
sible that peace may soon follow. On the field of 
battle my army was smaller than his, but the enemy 
was caught in a false position while he was manoeu- 
vring." 

The emperor, with considerable severity, reproves 
his brother for announcing at the theatres that the 

saw the disaster. He ordered the battery of his guard to fire rouud 
shot on the parts of the ice which remained unbroken, and thus to com- 
plete the destruction of the wretches who had taken refuge there. 
Nearly two thousand persons were thus drowned among the broken 
ice." — Consulat et Empire, liyre xxiii., p. 326. 

A person, not an eye-witness himself, but who had carefully collected 
information respecting this battle from eye-witnesses, described to me 
the scene. The French batteries fired, by Napoleon's orders, first, not 
on the Eussians, but on the parts of the ice nearest to the shore. 
"When these were broken, the Russians were on a sort of island of ice. 
They all fell on their knees. The batteries then fired on them and on 
the ice on which they stood, until the last man was killed or drowned. 
My informant computed the number thus destroyed at six thcusand.— - 
Tb. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 289 

German monarcli bad sent Stadion and Giulay to 
negotiate peace ; and permitting the guns of tlie In- 
valides to be fired in honor of the anniversary of his 
coronation. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" SCHONBUUNN', December 13, 1805. 

" My Brother — You need not have announced so 
pompously that the enemy had sent plenipotentiaries, 
or have fired the guns. It was the way to throw cold 
water on the zeal of the nation, and to give foreigners 
a false impression as to our affairs at home. Crying 
out for peace is not the means of getting it. I did not 
think it worth putting into a bulletin, still less did it 
deserve to be mentioned in the theatres. The mere 
■word peace means nothing ; what we want is a glorious 
peace. Nothing could be more ill-conceived or more 
impolitic than what has just been done in Paris." 

The next letter is a further discipline of Joseph, 
and strong utterance of the absolute power he designed 
to wield, whatever reasons of public good were as- 
signed for the boundless ambition. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" SCHONBEUNN, December 15, 1805. 

" My Brother — I have got your letter of the 7th.* 
I am not accustomed to let my policy be governed by 

* In this letter Joseph had dwelt on the general wish in Paris for 
peace. — Tr. 



240 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tlie gossip of Paris, and I am sorr j that you attach so 
much importance to it. My people, under all circum- 
stances, have found it good to trust every thing to me, 
and the present question is too complicated to be un- 
derstood by a Parisian citizen. I mentioned to you 
my disapprobation of the importance which you gave 
to the arrival of the two Austrian plenipotentiaries, 
I disapprove equally of the articles which the Journal 
de Paris keeps on publishing. Nothing can be more 
silly or in worse taste. I shall make peace when I 
think it the interest of my people to do so ; and the 
outcries of a few intriguers will not hasten or delay it 
by a single hour. My peopte will always be of one 
opinion when it knows that I am pleased, because that 
proves that its interests have been protected. The 
time when it deliberated in its sections has passed. 
The battle of Austerlitz has shown how ridiculous was 
the importance which, without my orders, you gave 
to the mission of the plenipotentiaries. I will fight, 
if it be necessary, more than one battle more to arrive 
at a peace with securities. I trust nothing to chance ; 
but what I say I do, or I die. You will see that the 
peace, advantageous as I shall make it, will be thought 
disadvantageous by those who are now clamoring for 
it, because they are fools and blockheads, who know 
nothing about it. It is ridiculous to hear them always 
repeating that we want peace, as if the mere fact of 
peace was any thing ; all depends on the conditions. 
I have read the extract from Fesch's letter. He does 
not know what he is talking about, nor M. Alquier 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 241 

an J more, when they speak of a disembarkation of 
eight thousand Austrian cavalry — as if eight thousand 
cavalry could be so easily embarked." 

The morning succeeding the battle, Francis, Em- 
peror of Germany, rode -with his escort to the head- 
quarters of Napoleon. Partially sheltered by a mill, 
and standing in the chill breath of the winter winds, 
he saluted the monarch, saying to his majesty, " I re- 
ceive you in the only palace which I have inhabited 
for the last two months." 

Francis replied, "You have made such use of it, 
that you ought not to complain of the accommoda- 
tions." For two hours the kings conversed ; and Na- 
poleon said to the charge of injustice on the part of 
England, " The English arc a nation of merchants. 
In order to secure for themselves the commerce of the 
world, they are willing to set the continent in flames." 
A remark of much truth, so far as the policy and 
power of Pitt were concerned. Having agreed upon 
an armistice with Germany, Francis jjroposed to in- 
clude Eussia, on the condition that Alexander and his 
army might withdraw to his dominions. Napoleon 
immediately agreed to the terms, and sent an envoy 
to the head-quarters of the emperor, to obtain his 
pledge that he would cease to fight against France. 
December 15th the treaty was signed with Francis at 
Presburg, and on the 26th at Vienna with Prussia. 
Austria paid the expenses of the campaign. She 

also "yielded the Yenetian territories to the kingdom 

11 



242 LIFE OF NAPOLEOJSr BONAPAETE. 

of Italy : her ancient possessions of tlie Tyrol aua 
Voralberg were transferred to Bavaria, to remunerate 
that elector for the part he had taken in the war; 
Wirtemberg, having also adopted the French side, 
received recompense of the same kind at the expense 
of the same power ; and both of these electors were 
advanced to the dignity of kings. Bavaria received 
Anspach and Bareuth from Prussia, and, in return, 
ceded Berg, which was erected into a grand duchy, 
and conferred, in an independent sovereignty, on Na- 
poleon's brother-in-law, Murat. Finally, Prussia added 
Hanover to her dominions, in return for the cession 
of Anspach and Bareuth, and acquiescence in the 
other arrangements above mentioned." 

Pitt was astonished and greatly depressed by the 
tidings of the terrible defeat of the allies at Austerlitz. 
His health which had declined, now rapidly failed, 
and January 23, 1806, he expired, with the sad ex- 
clamation, "Alas, my country!" on his dying lips. 
He was no more jealous of England's glory than Na- 
poleon of the honor of France; and he cordially hated 
the revolutionary o'-epuhlicanism of his enemy, and 
equally so, the gigantic influence it gave to the en- 
throned Oorsican, who rose from a Jacobin officer, to 
the proudest throne in Europe. While this scene was 
transpiring in England, Napoleon was concluding a 
peace with all the hostile nations except "the sea- 
girdled isle." His communications now reveal his 
new designs of seizing the ancient monarchies of 
Europe, and forming of them sab-kingdoms for hia 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 243 

family — a stroke of ambition which ultimately reached 
the base of his own throne, rending his empire — open- 
ing both the path of unrighteous dominion, and of 
ultimate ruin. At this date the intermarriage of near 
relations with princes and potentates, is also declared. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Munich, December 31, 1805. 

"My Brother — I am at Munich. I shall remain 
here a few days to receive the ratification of the treaty, 
and to give to the army its last orders. 

" I intend to take possession of the kingdom of 
Naples. Marshal Massena and General Saint-Cyr aro 
marching on that kingdom witli two corps-d'armee. 

" I have named you my lieutenant commanding-in 
chief the army of Naples. 

" Set off for Eome forty hours after the receipt of 
this letter, -and let your first dispatch inform me that 
you have entered Naples, driven out the treacherous 
Court, and subjected that part of Italy to our authority. 

" You will find at the head-quarters of the army the 
decrees and instructions relating to your mission. 

" You will wear the uniform of a general of division. 
As my lieutenant, you have all the marshals under 
your orders. Your command does not extend beyond 
the army and the Neapolitan territory, If my pres- 
ence were not necessary in Paris I would march my- 
self on Naples ; but with the generals whom you have, 
and the instructions which you will receive, you will 
do all that I could do. Do not say whither vou are 



2'M LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

going, except to the Arcli-Ohancellor ; let it be known 
only by your letters from the army." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Munich, December 31, 1805. 
'' My Beother — I have demanded in marriage for 
Prince Eugene, Princess Augusta, daughter of the 
Elector of Bavaria, and a very pretty person. This 
marriage has been agreed on ; I have demanded an- 
other princess for Jerome. As you have seen him 
last tell me if I can reckon on the young man's con- 
sent. I have also arranged a marriage for your eldest 
daughter with a small prince, who in time will become 
a great prince. As this last marriage can' not take 
place for some months, I shall have time to talk to 
you about it. Tell mamma, as from me, about the 
marriage of Prince Eugene with Princess Augusta. 
I do not wish it to be mentioned publicly." 

NAPOLEON TO PRINCESS JOSEPH. 

" Munich, January 9, 1806. 

" Madame my Sister-in-law — I settled some time 
ago the marriage of my son. Prince Eugene, with the 
Princess Augusta, daughter of the King of Bavaria. 
The Elector of Eatisbon marries them at Munich on 
the 15th of January. I am detained, therefore, for a 
few days longer in this town. 

" The Princess Augusta is one of the handsomest 
and most accomplished persons of her sex. It would 
be proper, I think, that you should make her a present 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 245 

costing from 15,000, to 20,000 francs. She will set 
off for Italy on the 20 th of January, The King of 
Bavaria will write to you to announce the marriage. 
Whereupon I pray Grod, madame, my sister-in-law, to 
keep you in his holy and worthy protection." 

The immediate provocation to invade Naples, was 
the unprincipled disregard of that kingdom, which was 
under the sceptre of aBourboo, of her pledge of neutral- 
ity, and upon the withdrawal of St. Cyr's army from 
her ports to join the emperor's campaign, inviting the 
English fleet into her harbors, and then turning her 
battalions against France. The truth is, Naples was 
terrified into a submission which was scorned as soon as 
there was hope of deliverance from Napoleonic power. 
It was dishonorable, and an occasion for hostility. 
Having now the might, the emperor resolved to de- 
throne the reigning sovereign, and confiscate the realm 
for his brother. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Stuttgardt, January 19, 1806. 

" My Brother — ^I wish you to enter the kingdom 
of Naples in the first days of February, and I wish to 
hear from you in the course of Februaty that our flag 
is flying on the walls of that capital. You will make 
no truce ; you will hear of no capitulation : my will is 
that the Bourbons shall have ceased to reign at Naples 
I intend to seat on the throne a prince of my own 
house. In the first place, you, if it suits you ; if not, 
another. 



246 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPAETE. 

" I repeat it, do not divide your forces ; let your 
army pass the Apennines, and let your three corps 
march on l^aples, so disposed as to be able to join in 
one day on one field of battle. Leave a general, some 
depots, some stores, and some artillerymen at Ancona 
for its defense. Naples once taken, the distant parts 
of the kingdom will fall of themselves. The enemy 
in the Abruzzi will be taken in the rear, and you will 
send a division to Taranto, and another toward Sicily 
to conquer that kingdom. I intend to leave under 
your orders in the kingdom of Naples all this year and 
afterward, until I make some new disposition, fourteen 
regiments of French cavalry on a full war establish- 
ment. Tlie country miLst find provisions^ clothes, re- 
mounts, and all that is necessary for your army, so that 
it may not cost me a farthing ^ 

Napoleon began his marches slowly toward France, 
making all possible provision for the wounded which 
were left behind till the warmer air of spring. He 
hastened to the capital, and prevented a grand recep- 
tion by entering the city at dead of night. He im- 
mediately commenced a scrutiny of the disordered 
bank of the kingdom, and surveyed at a glance the 
details of finance, and magnificent plans of internal 
improvement. 

He addressed a note of approbation to Joseph for his 
management, as his representative in the capital, and 
presented him an elegant snuff-box with the emperor's 
portrait. A few extracts irom his further correspond- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 247 

ence will continue the history of his invasion of 
Naples. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, January 27, 1806. 

"My Brother — I hear that the court of Naples 
sends Cardinal RuiFo to me with propositions of peace. 
My orders are that he be not allowed to come to Paris. 
You must immediately commence hostilities, and 
make all your arrangements for taking immediate pos- 
session of tl^ kingdom of Naples, without listening to 
any propositions for peace, armistice, or suspension of 
arms — ^reject them all indiscriminately." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paeis, January 30, 1806. 

"My Brother — I suppose that by the time you 
receive this letter you will be master of Naples. I can 
only repeat to you my former instructions and my de- 
cided intention to conquer the kingdom of Naples and 
Sicily. As soon as you are master of Naples you will 
send two corps, one toward Taranto, the other to- 
ward the coast opposite Sicily. You will affirm in 
the strongest manner that the King of Naples will 
never sit again on that throne; that his removal is 
necessary to the peace of the continent, which he has 
troubled twice." 

NAPOLEON to JOSEPH. 

" Paris, January 31, 1806. 

" My Brother — It is supposed that the Prince Royal 
remains in Naples ; if so, seize him and send him to 



248 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

France, witli a sufficient and trustworthy escort. This 
is my express order. I leave you no discretion. 
u* * « jf Qjjj Qf ii^Q great people or others are 
troublesome, send them to France, and say that you do 
it by my order. No half measures, no weakness. I 
intend my blood to reign in Naples as long as it does 
in France : the kingdom of Naples is necessary to me." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Parts, February V, 1806. 
" My Beother — I have received your letter of the 
28th of January. I thoroughly approve your answer 
to the Prince Eoyal of Naples ; a stop must be put to 
all such absurdities.* Your drafts on Paris will be 
regularly paid. I am surprised at the bad state of 
your artillery, and at your general want of supplies. 
This comes of generals who think only of robbing ; 
keep a strict hand over them. I ask from you only 
one thing — ^be master. I am anxious to hear that you 
are at Naples. I approve of your delaying for a few 
days; every thing requires time; I agree with you 
that it is better to begin a day or two later and go 
straight forward. March on boldly. In your endeav- 
ors to improve the condition of your army on their 
way to Naples, you will be doing what I wish. You 
can not have too many staff-officers. When you enter 
Naples, proclaim that you will suffer no private con- 

* The king and queen -offered to abdicate in favor of the prince. 
Joseph answered that it was too late ; that he came to execute NapO' . 
Icon's orders, not to treat. — Te. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 249 

tributions to be raised, that the whole army will be 
rewarded, and that it is not right that only a few in- 
dividuals should be enriched by' the exertions of all. 

* * * Do not lose a day or an hour in trying 
to seize Sicily : many things will be easy in the first 
moment, and difficult afterward. 

" When you have taken Naples, and all looks set- 
tled, I will communicate to you my plans for getting 
you acknowledged king of Naples. 

********* 
I am well pleased with my affairs here. It gave 
me great trouble to bring them into order, and to force 
a dozen rogues, at whose head is Ouvrard, to refund. 
I had made up my mind to have them shot without 
trial. Thank God I have been repaid. This has put 
me somewhat out of humor. I tell you about it that 
you may see how dishonest men are. You, who are 
now at the head of a great army and will soon be at 
that of a great administration, ought to be aware of 
this. Eoguery has been the cause of all the misfor- 
tunes of France. 

* * * I take the greatest interest in your 
prosperity, and particularly in your glory; in your 
position it is the first of wants; without it life can 
have no charm." 

Napoleon's absorbing love of military life is force- 
fully expressed in other passages : 

"The returns of my armies form the most agreeable 

portion of my library. They are the volumes which 

n* 



250 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

I read with the greatest pleasure in my moments of 
relaxation. 

u ^ ^- -x- Tiii^e pleasure, if you can, in reading 
your returns. The good condition of my armies is 
owing to my devoting to tlieni two or three hours in 
every day. When the monthly returns of my armies 
and of my fleets, which form twenty thick volumes, 
are sent to me, I give up every other occupation in 
order to read them in detail, and to observe the dif- 
ference between one monthly return and another. No 
young girl enjoys her novel so much as I do these 
returns." 

" The English and the Eussians having abandoned 
the Neapolitan territorj?^, Joseph led his army on the 
frontiers; at which point Napoleon wrote him, with 
the request to drop the family name," 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, February IS, ISO 6. 

"My Brother — Yom- letter of the 8th of February 
has reached me. You must have received my procla- 
mation to my army at Schonbruuu, which I had kept 
in reserve. Caution is no longer necessary. You are 
already master of Naples, and on the point of taking 
Sicily by surprise ; this is your chief aim. The Nea- 
politan arrangeniouts are already approved by Prussia. 
You should entitle 3-our acts ' Joseph Napoleon ;' j'on 
need not add ' Bonaparte.' "* 

* From this timo the family changed thoir name to Napoleon. 



LIFE OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 251 

The court passed over into Sicily, and Joseph was 
proclaimed king of Naples. Napoleon gave him royal 
counsel respecting the securities of his throne, and ab- 
solute dictation. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Paris, March 2, 1806. 

" My Brother— You are too cautious. Naples can 
well give you four or five millions. Announce my 
Speedy arrival at Naples. It is so far off' that I do not 
dare to promise you that I shall go, but there is no 
harm in announcing it, both for the sake of the army 
and the people. 

" Your troubles are what always occur. Never go 
out without guards. * * * In all your calcula- 
tions assume this ; that a fortnight sooner or a fort- 
night later you will have an insurrection. It is an 
event of uniform occurrence in a conquered country. 
¥: * * Whatever you do the mere force of opinion 
[Joseph had written — * This town appears to me more 
populous than Paris. I can maintain my position 
only by the assistance of public opinion'] will not 
maintain you in a city like Naj^les. Take care that 
there are mortars in the forts and troops in reserve to 
punish speedily an insurrection. Disarm, and do it 
quickly. * * * I presume that you have cannon 
in your palaces, and take all proper precautions for 
your safety. You can not watch too narrowly those 
about you. The presumption and carelessness of the 
French are unequaled. 



252 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

"All the troubles under whicli you are suffering 
belong to your position. Disarm, disarm, keep order 
in tliat immense city. Keep your artillery in posi- 
tions where the mob can not seize them. Eeckon on 
a riot or a small insurrection. I wish that I could give 
you the benefit of my experience in these matters." 

Four days later he added : 

"Let the lazzaroni who use the dagger be shot with- 
out mercy. It is only by a salutary terror that you 
will keep in awe an Italian populace. The least that 
the conquest of Naples must do for you is to afford 
supplies to your army of forty thousand men. Lay a 
contribution of thirty millions on the whole kingdom. 
Your conduct wants decision. Your soldiers and your 
generals ought to live in plenty. Of course, you will 
call together the priests and declare them responsible 
for any disorder. The lazzaroni must have chiefs ; 
they must answer for the rest. "Whatever you do, 
you will have an insurrection. Disarm. You say 
nothing about the forts. If necessary, do as I did in 
Cairo: prepare three or four batteries, whose shells 
shall reach every part of ISTaples, You may not use 
them, but their mere existence will strike terror. The 
kingdom of Naples is not exhausted. You can a!! ways 
get money ; since there are royal fiefs, and taxes which 
have been given away. Every alienation of the royal 
domains or of the taxes — though its existence may be 
Immemorial — must be annulled, and a system of taxa- 
tion, equal and severe, must be established. * * * 
You have no money, but you have a good army and 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 253 

a good country to supply you. Prepare for tlie siege 
of Gaeta. You speak of the insufiiciency of your 
military force. Two regiments of cavalry, two bat- 
talions of light infantry, and a company of artillery, 
would put to flight all the mob of Naples. But the 
first of all things is to have money, and you can get it 
only in Naples. A contribution of thirty millions will 
provide for every thing, and put you at your ease. 
Tell me something about- the forts. I presume that 
they command the town, and that you have put pro- 
visional commandants into them. You must set about 
organizing a gendarmerie. You feel, on entering Na- 
ples, as every one feels on entering a conquered coun- 
try. Naples is richer than Yienna, and not so ex- 
hausted. Milan itself, when I entered it, had not a 
farthing. Once more, expect no money from me. 
The five hundred thousand francs in gold, which I 
sent to you, are the last I shall send to Naples. I care 
not so much about three or four millions, as about 
the principle. Eaise thirty millions, pay your army, 
treat well youi' generals and commanders, put your 
material in order." 

The purpose to make the people pay the invading 
army ; the establishment of nobility, and all the sup- 
ports of a splendid monarchy, are apparent in a subse- 
quent letter to Joseph, who was an amiable, kind- 
hearted man, and too yielding and sympathizing to 
suit hi3 younger, but imperial brother : 



254 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Paris, March 8, 1806. 
. " My Beother — I see that by one of jour procla- 
mations you promise to impose no war contribution, 
and that you forbid your soldiers to require those who 
lodge them to feed them. It seems to me that your 
measures are too narrow. It is not by being civil to 
people that you obtain a hold on them. This is not 
the way to get the means to reward your army prop- 
erly. Eaise thirty millions from the kingdom of 
Naples. Pay well your army ; remount well your 
cavalry and your trains ; have shoes and clothes made. 
This can not be done without money. As for me it 
would be too absurd if the conquest of Naples did not 
put my army at its ease. It is impossible that you 
should keep within the bounds which you profess. 
Back yourself, if you like, by an order of mine. 
** ****** 

" You must establish in the kingdom of Naples a 
certain number of French families, holding fiefs either 
carved out of domains of the crown, or taken from 
their present possessors, or from the monks by dimin- 
ishing the number of convents. In my opinion your 
throne will have no solidity unless you surround it 
with a hundred generals, colonels, and others attached 
to your house, possessing great fiefs of the kingdom of 
Naples and Sicily. Bernadotte and Massena should, 
I think, be fixed in Naples, with the title of princes, 
and with large revenues. Enable them to found great 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 255 

families : I do this in Piedmont, the kingdom of Italy, 
and Parma. In these countries and in Naples three 
or four hundred French military men ought to be es- 
tablished with property descending by primogeniture. 
In a few years they will marry into the princpal fam- 
ilies, and your throne will be strong enough to do 
without a French army — a point which must be 
reached. In the discussions between Naples and 
France, France will never desire to supply Naples 
with more troops than are absolutely necessary. She 
will always wish to keep them together to meet her 
other enemies. I intend to give Dalmatia to a prince, 
as well as Neufchatel, which Prussia has ceded to me. 
"There are about one hundred old guardes-du-corps 
here, good men, who may be useful in your body- 
guard, mixed with the Neapolitan nobles." 

Holland, which had been overswept in her revolu- 
tionary struggles by England, and delivered from the 
enemy by the interposition of France, was now in 
duced to ask the emperor for a king in the person of 
Louis Bonaparte. This amiable prince, who had mar- 
ried the graceful Hortense, Josephine's daughter, was 
established at the Hague, May 6th, 1806. He became 
a deservedly popular ruler. 

The kings of Wirtemberg and Bavaria, with four- 
teen other princes of various degrees of rank, occupy- 
ing the valley of the Ehine in the west of Germany, 
associated themselves together in an alliance called the 
Confederation of the Rhine, and Napoleon became, ac- 



256 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

cording to his design, Protector. This reach of author' 
itj virtually dismembered the German Empire, and 
added some of its most beautiful portions to the realm 
of France. Napoleon, while thus increasing his power, 
was raising barriers against his foreign foes. He was 
a noble monarch in his schemes of national progress 
and universal sway, but nevertheless, a king whose 
law of conquest and control, was force — and whose 
pole-star of wondrous thought was glory, with little 
reverence for man in his individual worth, and as little 
for God in his real character and spiritual worship. 

Mr. Fox had succeeded Pitt in the cabinet of En- 
gland, and was his antagonist in politics. His friendly 
relations to Napoleon, awakened the hope and expecta- 
tion among the people, of peace. But the aristocracy 
of England were unchanged in that hostility to the 
emperor, which had its stern and unalterable expres- 
sion in the government of Pitt. Napoleon's views 
were expressed in a letter to Mr. Fox: "France will 
not dispute with England the conquests England has 
made. Neither does France claim any thing more on 
the continent than she now has. It will, therefore, be 
easy to lay down the basis of a peace, if England has 
not inadmissible views relative to commercial interests. 
The emperor is persuaded that the real cause of the 
rupture of the peace of Amiens was no other than the 
refusal to conclude a commercial treaty. Be assured 
that the emperor, without refusing certain commercial 
advantages, if they are sought, will not admit of any 
treaty prejudicial to French industry, which he means 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 257 

to protect by all duties and prohibitions "whicli can 
favor its development. He insists on having liberty 
to do at home all that he pleases, all that is beneficial, 
without any rival nation having a right to find fault 
with him." 

The entire intercourse between Napoleon and Mr. 
Fox was frank and cordial. Exchange of several 
prisoners of note was had, and no bitter words were 
passed. Besides the storm in parliament, the prospect 
of a treaty declined as the conditions were more dis- 
tinctly announced. England wanted Malta, and also 
Hanover given to Prussia by Napoleon after the peace 
of Presburg. Napoleon was determined to have Sicily. 
To complete the difficulties, and remove the last ground 
of anticipated reconciliation, Mr. Fox died, September 
1806. 

The interesting letters of the emperor furnish a vivid 
view of the crisis. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"St. Cloud, September 12, 1806. 

" My Brother — I told you that Eussia had not rati- 
fied. Prussia is arming in a most ridiculous manner ; 
however, she shall soon disarm, or pay dearly for what 
she is doing. Nothing can exceed the vacillation of 
that cabinet. The court of Vienna makes me great 
protestations, and its total want of power inclines me 
to put faith in them. Whatever happens, I can face, 
and will face, every enemy. The conscription which 
I have just levied is going on in every direction. I 



258 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

am going to call out my reserve ;"^ I am fully provided, 
and in want of nothing. Whether it be war or peace 
I shall not diminish your army. In a few days per- 
haps I may put myself at the head of my grand army ; 
it consists of nearly one hundred and fifty thousand 
men, and with that force I can reduce to submission 
Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. There will be a 
somewhat formidable army in Upper Italy. Keep 
these dispositions secret ; they wiU be best proclaimed 
by victory. 

"Press your enemies sharply; drive them out of 
the peninsula; recover Cotrona, Scylla, and Keggio. 
Jerome has landed ; I have made him a prince, and I 
have given him the great cordon of the Legion of 
Honor. I have arranged his marriage with the Prin- 
cess Catherine, the duke of Wirtemberg's daughter. 
As I shall be obliged to call for a plebiscitum on his 
account, that is to say the sanction of the people to his 
succession to the crown, I wish Lucien not to let slip 
this opportunity.j" 

"Be quite easy about political affairs; go on as if 
nothing were happening. If indeed I am again forced 
to strike, my measures are so well and surely taken, 

* In France, usually only half the conscripts are called out at first ; 
the other half is called the reserve, and in peace is seldom called out. 
It remains, however, liable to serve ; and on an emergency, the re- 
serves of the four or five previous years are sometimes called out to- 
gether. This was done in 1854. — Tr. 

f Joseph wrote to Lucien. Lucien answered that he would not part 
with his wife or make any change in the position of his children, and 
that solicitations to him, which must meet with refusals, were useless. 
— Ta 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONitPAKTE. 259 

that the first notice to Europe of my departure from 
Paris will be the total ruin of my enemies. Let your 
newspapers describe me as occupied in Paris with 
hunting, amusements, and negotiations. If the war- 
like preparations of Prussia are mentioned, let it be 
supposed that they take place with my consent ; and 
M. Humboldt must have received orders to proceed to 
your court as Prussian minister. I will never lay 
down my arms unless Kaples and Sicily are yours. I 
have called your attention to Pescara : keep there a 
sufficient quantity of powder, of gun-carriages, a mili- 
tary commandant, an engineer officer, an artillery offi- 
cer, a storekeeper, a commissariat officer, a garrison of 
four or five hundred men, and provisions for a month. 
Order the troops in the Abruzzi to shut themselves up 
in Pescara in an emergency, sending word at the same 
time to the general in command at Ancona. If the 
enemy succeeded in landing and throwing a thousand 
men into that place, he would soon be able to sustain 
a siege, which would be very inconvenient. 

" In the midst of all these events I do not forget the 
sea. I have schemes which may possibly in a month 
or two make me master of the Mediterranean." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" St. Cloud, September 13, 1806. 

" My Brother — ^Every thing proves that Mr. Fox 
IS dead. Lord Yarmouth has been triumphantly re- 
ceived in London, because he was known to belong to 
the peace party. Mr. Fox's illness has filled the na 



260 LIFE OF N-APOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tion with, consternation. The ministers seemed de- 
lighted with these demonstrations, and all hope of 
peace is not yet lost. The English minister in Paris 
is too ill to see any body. He has attended no con- 
ference since the arrival of his last courier. Prussia 
makes me a thousand protestations, which do not pre- 
vent my taking my precautions : in a few days she 
will have disarmed, or she will be crushed. Austria 
declares her intention to remain neutral. Eussia does 
not know what she wants, but her distance renders her 
powerless. Such, in two words, is the state of affairs. 
" I fancy that in the course of the next ten days the 
peace of the continent will be more settled than ever. 
As to England, I can conjecture nothing. Her con- 
duct is decided, not by general politics, but by internal 
intrigues. The last news announced that Mr. Fox 
was at the point of death ; his friends are deploring 
his loss as if he were already dead." 

Prussia had never been satisfied with Napoleon's 
apology for violating her territory, when, surrounding 
Mack at Ulm, he crossed Anspach with his troops. 
Of this, amid the returning hostility to France in 
Eussia, and its fresh, intensity in England, she com- 
plained ; and mustering her legions, joined the new 
coalition with those mighty empires, to crush Napo- 
leon. She marched her army, two hundred thousand 
strong, into Saxony. 

" The conduct of Prussia, in thus rushing into hos- 
tilities without waiting for the advance of the Eussians, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 261. 

was as rasli as her holding back from Austria, during 
the campaign of Austerlitz, had been cowardly. As 
if determined to profit by no lesson, the Prussian 
council also directed their army to advance toward the 
French, instead of lying on their own frontier — a rep- 
etition of the great leading blunder of the Austrians 
in the preceding year. The Prussian army according- 
ly invaded the Saxon provinces, and the elector of 
Saxony, seeing his country treated as rudely as that 
of the elector of Bavaria had been on a similar occa- 
sion by the Austrians, and wanting the means to with- 
draw his own troops as the Bavarian had succeeded in 
doing under like provocation, was compelled to accept 
the alliance which Prussia urged on him, and to join 
his troops with those of the power by which he had 
been thus insulted and wronged." 

Napoleon led his legions forward, confused the 
Prussians by rapid movements, and soon encamped in 
their rear, cutting off supplies, and possibility of re- 
treat. He again made efforts to save the needless flow 
of blood, and wrote the king, urging the cessation of 
hostilities and carnage. No reply was received, and 
his troops advanced in three divisions : Souit and Ney 
in the direction of Hof ; Murat, Bernadotte, and Da- 
voust toward Saalburg, and Lannes and Augereau upon 
Saalfield. At Saalfield there was a fierce battle with 
the corps of Prince Louis of Prussia, in which the French 
were victorious, and blew up Naumburg with its mag- 
azines. The prince was mortally wounded, and the 
Prussian forces completely surrounded by the enemy 



262 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAErE. 

At Jena and Auerstadt, the great armies met in de- 
cisive conflict. Napoleon perceived on the evening of 
October IStli, that the battle must come the following 
day, although his heavy train of artillery was still 
many hours behind. But he encouraged his men, 
who with what seemed superhuman strength, drew 
the guns which they had, up a lofty plateau in front 
of Jena, and prepared for the desperate action. " Lan- 
nes commanded the centre ; Augereau the right ; 
Soult the left; and Murat the reserve and cavalry. 
Soult had to sustain the first assault of the Prus- 
sians, which was violent and sudden ; for the mist lay 
so thick on the field that the armies were within half 
gunshot of each other ere the sun and wind rose and 
discovered them; and on that instant Mollendorf 
charged. The battle was contested well for some time 
on this point ; but at length Ney appeared in the rear 
of the emperor with a fresh division ; and then the 
French centre advanced to a general charge, before 
which the Prussians were forced to retire. They 
moved for some space in good order; but Murat now 
poured his masses of cavalry on them, storm after 
storm, with such rapidity and vehemence that their 
rout became miserable. It ended in the complete 
breaking up of the army — horse and foot all flying to- 
gether, in the confusion of panic, upon the road to 
Weimar. At that point the fugitives met and mingled 
with their brethren flying, as confusedly as themselves, 
from Auerstadt. In the course of this disastrous day, 
twenty thousand Prussians were killed or taken; 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 263 

three liundred guns, twenty generals, and sixty stand- 
ards. The commander-in-chief, the Duke of Bruns- 
wick, being wounded in the face with a grape-shot, 
was carried early off the field, never to recover. The 
loss of superior ofiicers on the Prussian side was so 
great, that of an army which, on the evening of the 
13th of October, mustered not less than one hundred 
and fifty thousand, but a few regiments were ever 
able to act in concert for some time after the 14th. 
The various routed divisions roamed about the coun- 
try, seeking separately the means of escape ; they 
were in consequence destined to fall an easy prey. 
Mollendorf and the prince of Orange-Fulda laid down 
their arms at Erfurt. General Kalkreuth's corps was 
overtaken and surrounded among the Hartz mount- 
ains ; prince Eugene of Wirtemberg and sixteen 
thousand men, surrendered to Bernadotte at Halle. 
The prince of Hohenlohe at length drew together not 
less than fifty thousand of these wandering soldiers, 
and threw himself at their head into Magdeburg. But 
it turned out that that great fortress had been stripped 
of all its stores for the service of the Duke of Bruns- 
wick's army before Jena. Hohenlohe, therefore, was 
compelled to retreat toward the Oder. He was de- 
feated in a variety of skirmishes ; and at length, find- 
ing himself devoid of ammunition or provisions, laid 
down his arms at Prenzlow; twenty thousand surren- 
dered with the prince. His rear, consisting of about 
ten thousand, under the command of the celebrated 
general Blucher, were so far behind as to render it 



264 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

possible for them to attempt escape. Their heroic 
leader traversed the country with them for some time 
unbroken, and sustained a variety of assaults, from far 
superior numbers, with the most obstinate resolution. 
By degrees, however, the French under Soult hemmed 
him in on one side, Murat on the other, and Berna- 
dotte appeared close behind him. He was thus forced 
to throw himself into Lubeck, where a severe action 
was fought in the streets of the town, on the 6th of 
November. The Prussians in this battle, lost four 
thousand prisoners, besides the slain and wounded: 
he retreated to Schwerta, and there, it being impos- 
sible for him to go further without violating the neu- 
trality of Denmark, on the morning of the 7th, Blu- 
cher at length laid down his arms — having exhibited a 
specimen of conduct and valor such as certainly had not 
been displayed by any of his superiors in the campaign." 
Bonaparte entered Berlin the 25th of October. The 
Prussian monarchy had crumbled before the march oi 
his resistless battalions, and lay in ruins at his feet. 
He describes the grand success : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Berlin, November 4, ISOti. 

*'My Brother — The bulletins will have informed 
you of what is going on here. I have taken one 
hundred and twenty thousand prisoners ; park, maga- 
zines, baggage, every thing has fallen into my power. 
The three fortresses on the Oder have capitulated. I 
have completely crushed the power of Prussia. Aus- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 265 

tria has begua to arm on the pretext of protecting her 
neutrality. "We must make corresponding prepara- 
tions in Upper Italy. If Austria were to attack us, 
you would gain this advantage by my position — that 
the Eussians would concentrate their forces in Poland, 
and that England would direct hers upon Sweden. 

" I am on the borders of Poland ; to make war in 
that country one must have cavalry. Eelying on your 
sending back yours, I have withdrawn eight regiments 
of horse from Italy, and if you fail me, enough will 
not be left there. The last two months have been 
spent in arming and victualing my strong places in 
Italy. I have just given orders that my army may 
be assembled by the 1st of December ; it will consist 
altogether of more than sixty thousand men." 

Napoleon took possession of the royal palace, with 
triumphal display ; and in his bulletin having spoken 
severely of the queen who rode at the head of her 
troops, animating them with her fiery valor and beau- 
ty, Josephine remonstrated in a letter to him. In his 
re|)ly, he narrates briefly the pardon of the Prince of 
Hatzfeld, who was governor of Berlin under Napo- 
leon's protection, but secretly in correspondence with 
the Prussian army. He was arrested, taken before a 
court-martial, and sentenced to be shot. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPHINE. 

"November 6, 1806; 9 o'clock P. M. 

"I have received your letter, in which, it seems, 

you reproach me for speaking ill of women. True it 

12 



266 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

is, that above all things I dislike female intriguers. I 
have been accustomed to kind, gentle, conciliatory 
women. Such I love, and if they have spoiled me, it 
is not my fault, but yours. However, you will see 
that I have acted indulgently toward one sensible and 
deserving woman. I allude to Madame Hatzfeld. 
When I showed her her husband's letter, she burst into 
tears ; and said in a tone of the most exquiste grief and 
candor, 'It is indeed his writing!' This was too 
much ; it went to my heart. I said, ' Well, madame^ 
throw the letter into the fire, and then I shall have no 
proof against your husband.' She burned the letter, 
and was restored to happiness. Her husband is now 
safe. Two hours later, and he would have been lost. 
You see, therefore, that I like women who are femi- 
nine, unaffected and amiable, for they alone resemble 
you. Adieu, my love I am very well." 

Such an incident, is a pleasant interlude to the 
clangor of arms, the groans of the dying, and the wail 
of anguish from the living. Kapoleon had feeling, 
but with raree xceptions it was subordinated altogether 
to his lofty plans of national and personal grandeur. 
It never turned aside the wasting strokes of his aveng- 
ing arms, when the terror they inspired was auxiliary 
to the ultimate object. Madame Hatzfeld was restored 
to happiness; but a great company, in the march of 
empire, were consigned to hopeless sorrow. 



CHAPTER VI. 

The position of the hostile parties. — The Berha decrees. — Tiie war goes 
on. — Battle of Eylau. — Letter to Josephine. — Offers of peace rejected, 
— Preparations for another campaign. — Battle of Friedland. — The 
peace of Tilsit. — Friendship of Napoleon and Alexander. — Corre- 
spondence. — Napoleon's magnificent plans. — Code Napoleon. — De- 
signs upon Spain and Portugal. — Letters. — Tour to Italy. — Disagree- 
ment with Lucien. — Portugal taken. — Invasion of Spain. — Letters. — 
The abdication. — Joseph designated for the vacant throne. — His re 
luctant and unquiet reign. — The meeting of the emperors at Erfurth. 
— Josephine's divorce suggested. — Revolution in Spain. — Victories. 
— ^Letters. — Joseph again enthroned. — His complaint of Napoleon. — 
Intelligence of an Austrian campaign. — Battles of Eckmuhl and 
"Wagram. — Quarrel with the Pope. — Peace. — Divorce of Josephine. 

A week's campaign had changed the fortunes of 
Prussia. Witli a remnant of his ahnost annihilated 
army the king had fled to the frontier of Poland, and 
was welcomed witli sad surprise by the advancing 
Alexander of Russia. He refused renewed proposi- 
tions of peace, and prepared with his powerful ally 
again to meet France on the battle-plain. 

England, thoroughly aroused, violated the law of 
nations in her proclamation that France was in a state 
of blockade in regard to all nations, whether hostile or 
neutral Private property of the enemy on the sea, 
was seized, and passengers there, made prisoners. 

Napoleon retaliated by issuing a manifesto, and 
eleven edicts, called the Berlin Decrees — a measure 



268 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

famous among the boldest acts of their author. The 
British islands were declared to be blockaded, and 
English property on the continent confiscated; En- 
glishmen wherever found were taken prisoners, and 
all intercourse, commercial or civil, forbidden as trea- 
son against the government. The diificulties in the 
way of a practical working of the decrees were very 
great. The fabrics of England, and the necessaries of 
life which she furnished, had become indispensable to 
domestic comfort. Evasions were sought, and dissat- 
isfaction was general. But the question of right in a 
national view, hinges on the disputed fact of retaliation. 
And odious as the Berlin decrees were to the people 
of Europe, no careful reader of the conflicting testi- 
mony, can doubt the provocation given, " by issuing 
in May, 1806, the blockade of the French coasts of 
the English channel." It Was now the autumn of the 
same year, and Napoleon was master of Northern 
Germany, bringing almost the entire coast of Europe 
under his sway ; affording the opportunity he was 
prompt to improve, of embarrassing and crippling his 
formidable foe. Another act in the tragedy of wide- 
spread war was immediately opened. 

The emperor "prepared, without further delay, to 
extinguish the feeble spark of resistance which still 
lingered in a few garrisons of the Prussian monarchy 
beyond the Oder ; and to meet, ere they could reach 
the soil of Germany, those Russian legions which were 
now advancing, too late, to the assistance of Frederic 
William. That unfortunate prince sent Lucchesini to 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 269 

Berlin, to open, if possible, a negotiation with tlie vic- 
torious occupant of his capital and palace ; but Bona- 
parte demanded Dantzic, and two other fortified towns, 
as the price of even the briefest armistice ; and the 
Italian envoy returned, to inform the king that no 
hope remained for him except in the arrival of the 
Kussians. 

" Napoleon held in his hands the means of opening 
his campaign with those allies of Prussia, under cir- 
cumstances involving his enemy in a new and prob- 
ably endless train of difficulties. The partition of 
Poland — that great political crime, for which every 
power that had part in it has since been severely 
though none of them adequately, punished — had left 
the population of what had once been a great and 
powerful kingdom, in a state of discontent and irrita- 
tion, of which, had Napoleon being willing to make 
full use of it, the fruits might have been more dan- 
gerous for the czar than any campaign against any 
foreign enemy. The French emperor had but to an- 
nounce distinctly that his purpose was the restoration 
of Poland as an independent state, and the whole mass 
of an eminently gallant and warlike population would 
have risen instantly at his call. But Bonaparte was 
withheld from resorting to this effectual means of an- 
noyance by various considerations, of which the chief 
were these : first, he could not emancipate Poland 
without depriving Austria of a rich and important 
province, and consequently provoking her once more 
into the field; and secondly, he foresaw that tLe 



270 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

Russian emperor, if threatened witli tlie destruction 
of his Polish territory and authority, would ur^e the 
war in a very different manner from that which ne 
was likely to adopt while acting only as the ally ol 
Prussia. In a word, Napoleon was well aware of the 
extent of the czar's resources, and liad no wisli at this 
time to give a character of irremediable bitterness to 
their quarrel ; but though he for these reasons refrained 
from openly appealing in his own person to th.e Poles 
as a nation, yet he had no scruple about permitting 
others to tamper, in his behalf, witli the justly indig- 
nant feelings of the people. Some Polisb officers were 
already enlisted in his army, and through, these and 
others, he contrived to awaken the outraged passions 
of their countrymen, many of whom flocked to his 
standard, in the fond belief that he was to be the lib- 
erator of their nation." 

He issiied another address to the army, many of 
whose troops were reluctant to leave comfortable quar- 
ters for the snow-plains of Eussian war, which, like a 
trumpet-call awakened tlie enthusiasm Kapoleon only 
could inspire — a source of power greater than all 
others wielded by his genius. 

The Russians and Prussians lay, a hundred and 
twenty thousand strong, on the banks of the Vistula. 
It was four hundred miles from Berlin to WarsaW; to- 
ward which the French battalions marcbed amid the 
bitter cold and driving storms of winter. The horrors 
of this campaign were scarcely less terrific than those 
of the Egyptian marches upon burning sands — be- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 271 

tween whose extremes, were gatliered all the forms of 
human suffering and degradation. 

After a few skirmishes with the Eussians, Murat 
occupied Warsaw, the 28th of November ; and Napo- 
leon at Posen, meanwhile, was surrounded bj the ex- 
cited, hopeful Poles. Said the palatine of Gnesna : 
" We adore you, and with confidence repose, as upon 
Him who raises empires and destroys them, and 
humbles the proud — the regenerator of our country, 
the legislator of the universe !" Similar extravagant 
expressions of admiration and joyful anticipation re- 
peatedly greeted his ear. He assured the deputations 
that waited upon him, of his sympathy, and recruit- 
ing his forces from the ranks of the noble patriots, 
gave no further thought to the dif&cult enterprise of 
their liberation from galling oppression. 

Then followed severe encounters, which stained for 
many a league, the snow with crimson, and scattered 
the frozen, ghastly bodies of men along the path of 
those magnificent armies. The opposing columns 
soon met on the field of Eylau. Here the whole 
Eussian force, driven more than two hundred miles 
from the Vistula by the French, made a final, desper- 
ate stand. This was on February 7th, 1807 ; and as 
the night came down, Napoleon saw in the calm, cold 
moonlight, and waving lights of the watchfires, the 
enemy's line, extending two miles along a gentle 
swell of glittering ice and drifted snow; while over 
all, the howling winds wailed, in anticipation of the 
morrow, a funeral dirge. Two hundred cannon were 



272 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

placed witii silent threatening, at that midniglit hour, 
to sweep tlie ranks of the foe. While the next dawn 
was kindling upon the storm-clouds, the roar of the 
artillery announced the opening strife. 

" The French charged at two different points in 
strong columns, and were unable to shake the iron 
steadiness of the infantry, while the Eussian horse, and 
especially the Cossacks, under their gallant Hetman 
Platoff, made fearful execution on each division, as suc- 
cessively they drew back from their vain attempt. 
A fierce storm arose at midday ; the snow drifted right 
in the eyes of the Eussians ; the village of Serpallen, 
on their left, caught fire, and the smoke also rolled 
dense upon them. Davoust skillfully availed himself 
of the opportunity, and turned their flank so rapidly 
that Serpallen was lost, and the left wing compelled 
to wheel backward, so as to form almost at right 
angles with the rest of the line. The Prussian corps 
of L'Estocq, a small but determined fragment of the 
campaign of Jena, appeared at this critical moment in 
the rear of the Eussian left ; and, charging with such 
gallantry as had in former times been expected from 
the soldiery of the great Frederic, drove back Da- 
voust, and restored the Eussian line. The action con- 
tinued for many hours along the whole line — ^the 
French attacking boldly, the Eussians driving them 
back with unfailing resolution. Ney, with a French 
division, at length came up, and succeeded in occupy- 
ing the village of Schloditten, on the road to Konigs- 
berg. To regain this, and thereby recover the means 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 273 

of communicating with the king of Prussia, was 
deemed necessary ;. and it was carried accordingly at 
the point of the bayonet. This was at ten o'clock at 
night. So ended the longest and by far the severest 
battle in which Bonaparte had as yet been engaged. 
After fourteen hours' fighting either army occupied 
the same position as in the morning. 

" Either leader claimed the victory." 

Deeds of unequaled valor were done, and fifty thou- 
sand victims left on the frozen earth. Of the slain, more 
than ten thousand were Frenchmen. In one onset, 
a grenadier, whose arm had been torn away by a shell, 
rushed into the assaulting ranks, refusing to have his 
wound dressed, till the position was taken. The sight 
greatly moved Napoleon. It was devotion too deep 
for so dark a shrine beneath the glory of conquest. 

It was the first great battle in the career of Napoleon, 
which did not result in decided victory. The Eus- 
sians had twelve of the eagles of France, taken by 
Bensingen, while the emperor had possession of the 
field at a sacrifice which could not well bear repetition. 
"We need not pause to dwell on the scenes of blood 
displayed on the plain of Eylau, when the battle was 
over — the piteous appeals to Napoleon in behalf of wife, 
mother, and children — the pools of the red life-cur- 
rent — the heaps of mangled bodies of men and horses 
— ^beneath which lay the dying. Nor can fancy catch 
the sobs of grief and the low moans of unrecorded 
heart-breaking, in the hamlets and among the mount- 
ain homes of a continent. The Eussians retired to 

12* 



274 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Kdnigsberg; and on February 19tli, ISTapoleon retreat- 
ed to the Yistula. 

Before Lis departure, lie wrote to Josephine, and 
used the following kind and descriptive words : 

"Mj love! I am still at Ejlau. The country is 
covered with the dead and the wounded. This is not 
agreeable. One suffers, and the soul is oppressed to 
see so many victims. I am well. I have done what 
I wished. I have repulsed the enemy, compelling him 
to abandon his projects. You must be very anxious, 
and that thought afflicts me. Nevertheless, tranquilize 
yourself, my love, and be cheerful. Wholly thine. 

" Napoleon." 

Offers of peace were again made by the emperor and 
rejected. . And with an eloquent address to the de- 
cimated army, he entered his winter quarters to pre- 
pare for the renewed meeting with his unyielding, and 
now equal enemy. The spring came, and with it sup- 
plies from France and Switzerland, furnishing and re- 
cruiting his army, till he was ready with nearly three 
hundred thousand men to enter the contest afresh. 
He was at Osterode, in Poland, where he divided his 
time between his military plans and the immense bur- ' 
dens of state — ^the educational, civil, and financial in- 
terests of his empire. He projected the grand and 
beautiful Madeleine — ^a temple of literature, and a 
monument of fame to the bravery of the grand army. 

During this vernal season of preparation for war, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 275 

the joung prince, and intended heir to the throne of 
France, the son of Hortense and Louis, then jSve years 
of age, died of the croup. The sad tidings reached 
Napoleon, and bowed his head in sorrow. But Jo- 
sephine felt the blow with unutterable anguish. She 
knew that beyond the loss of a lovely and promising 
boy, was the necessity of a successor to the crown of 
France, and her marriage tie would not thwart the 
ambitious desire of him in whom was enshrined her 
earthly bliss — her very life. He wrote letters of con- 
dolence and affection to Josephine and Hortense, but 
these did not change the fact, which threw a dismal 
shadow over the desolate home. 

Dantzic, a strongly fortified town, surrendered to 
Napoleon, May 26th, after a terrific siege of fifty -one 
days, furnishing a rich supply of stores for his troops. 
The Eussians struck the first blow of general conflict 
early in June, by an assault on Ney's division, which 
was at Gustadt. It fell back to Deppen, where the 
emperor joined the division, and compelled the pur- 
suers to retreat. They were followed, and bloody bat- 
tles were fought. 

Bensingen finally took his position on the west 
bank of the river Aller, bringing that stream between 
him and the French forces. The town of Friedland, 
from which a narrow bridge crossed the river, was op 
posite. On the morning of June 14th, the Eussians 
commenced the attack on the enemy, hoping to secure 
defeat before Napoleon with the other divisions of the 
grand army could arrive. Crossing the Aller incau- 



276 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tiousljj he was inclosed in a deep bend of tlie river, 
fighting fariouslj, when, guided by the thunder of 
the cannonade, the emperor came ; he saw the situa- 
tion of the Eussians, and ordered a general assault, 
exclaiming, " This is the 14th of June. It is the an- 
niversary of Marengo. It is a lucky day for us." 

ISTey rushed upon the dense mass of Eussians in and 
before the town, and the fearful struggle became one 
wild commotion of desperate men, plunging steeds, 
tossing plumes, and waving banners. Friedland was 
in flames, and lit up the scene, as darkness shrouded 
the ensanguined plain. The allies were conquered ; 
and retreating, dashed into the waters which swept 
them down, beneath a shower of bullets from the 
columns of the victors 

Bensingen retreated toward the Niemen. 

" The Emperor Alexander, overawed by the genius 
of Napoleon, which had triumphed over troops more 
resolute than had ever before opposed him, and alarm- 
ed for the consequences of some decisive measure to- 
ward the reorganization of the Poles as a nation, began 
to think seriously of peace. Bensingen sent, on the 
21st of June, to demand an armistice ; and to thia 
proposal the victor of Friedland yielded immediate 
assent. 

The armistice was ratified on the 23d of June, and 
on the 25th the emperors of France and Eussia met 
personally, each accompanied by a few attendants, on 
a raft moored on the river Niemen, near the town of 
Tilsit. The sovereigns embraced each other, and re 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 277 

tiring under a canopy had a long conversation, to 
whicli no one was a witness. At its termination the 
appearances of mutual good-will and confidence were 
marked: immediately afterward the town of Tilsit 
was neutralized, and the two emperors established 
their courts there, and lived together in the midst of 
the lately hostile armies, more like old friends who 
had met on a party of pleasure, than enemies and 
rivals attempting by diplomatic means the arrange- 
ment of difficulties which had for years been deluging 
Europe with blood." 

Napoleon wrote to the King of Naples upon the 
close of the fetes, rides, and royal display on the 
banks of the Niemen : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH 

LiLSiT, July 9, 1807. 

"My Brother — Peace was signed yesterday and 
ratified to-day. The Emperor Alexander and I part- 
ed to-day at twelve o'clock, after having passed three 
weeks together. We lived as intimate friends. At 
our last interview he appeared in the order of the Le- 
gion of Honor, and I in that of St. Andrew. I have 
given the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor to the 
Grand Duke Constantine, to the Princes Kourakin and 
LabanofP, and to Count Budberg. The Emperor of 
Eussia has conferred his order upon the King of West- 
phalia, the Grand Duke of Berg, and on the Princes 
Neufchatel and Benevento. Corfa is to be given up 
to me. The order of the chief of the staff to have 



278 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Coifa occupied bj the troops whom I mentioned to 
you has been given to an officer who is on his way to 
you. Do not lose time in victualing that island, and 
sending thither all that is necessary." 

The Eang of Prussia, who had been invited by Alex- 
ander to join him in the negotiations at Tilsit, was 
treated like a subdued and unregarded foe. He was 
an ordinary man, and had been the immediate cause 
of the late hostilities. Kapoleon, therefore, despised 
him ; and assured the Emperor of Eussia, that on his 
account only did he consent to admit Frederic into the 
royal fraternity. The beautiful queen was no more hon- 
ored, with all her arts of fascination ; she went to her 
palace broken-hearted, and soon after died. The Prus- 
sian king had by the treaty half of his kingdom restored. 

The Polish provinces of Prussia were erected into a 
separate principality, styled " the Grand Duchy of 
Warsaw," and bestowed on the elector of Saxony, 
with the exception, however, of some territories as- 
signed to Eussia, and of Dantzic, which was declared 
a free city, to be garrisoned by French troops until the 
ratification of a maritime peace. The Prussian do- 
minions in Lower Saxony and on the Ehine, with 
Hanover, Hesse-Cassel, and various other small states, 
formed a new kingdom of Westphalia, of which Jerome 
Bonaparte, ISTapoleon's youngest brother, was recog- 
nized as king. Finally, Eussia accepted the mediation 
of prance for a peace with Turkey, and France that 
of Eussia for a peace with England. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 279 

Eussia thus became the ally of France, even beyond 
the letter of the treaty of Tilsit, and was willing to 
turn her strength against England, numoved in a for- 
midable and sublimely resolute, although, often unjust 
pre-eminence and hate. 

Napoleon and Alexander were united in extending 
their sceptres over coveted territories, and opposition 
to British aggressions. Into this coalition, soon after. 
Austria, Prussia, and Denmark entered — ^reversing the 
order of conflict, and changing the position of the 
French emperor, from solitary resistance to the rest of 
Europe, to that of a sovereign of monarchs, in the 
struggle with a foe, secure and defiant in his sea- 
girdled lair. 

The reliable pen of Napier has recorded the sub- 
joined verdict upon the desolating campaigns of the 
embattled nations : " Up to the peace of Tilsit, the 
wars of France were essentially defensive; for the 
bloody contest that wasted the continent so many 
years, was not a struggle for pre-eminence between 
ambitious powers — not a dispute for some acquisition 
of territory — not for the political ascendancy of one 
or another nation — but a deadly conflict to determine 
whether aristocracy or democracy should predominate 
— whether aristocracy or privilege should henceforth 
be the principle of European governments." 

Leaving his strong garrisons in Poland and North- 
em Germany, Napoleon returned to Paris, July 27th, 
and was received with boundless adulation. He again 
grasped with his versatile and rapid thought, the af- 



280 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

fairs of his vast empire, and projected witli the pre- 
cision and scientific skill of a royal engineer, canals, 
aqueducts, and bridges. The officers of state, from 
the prince to the policeman, felt the ubiquitous power 
of the emperor — " the greatest writer of his time, while 
he was its greiatest captain, its greatest legislator, its 
greatest administrator." 

Never before did a ruler so impress himself upon 
every part of public progress, and associate his name 
so justly with all the history of a realm, whether 
in acts of benign supremacy, or in the exercise of des- 
potic authority. 

" The Code Napoleon^ that elaborate system of juris- 
prudence, in the formation of which the emperor 
labored personally along with the most eminent law- 
yers and enlightened men of the time, was a boon of 
inestimable value to France. ' I shall go down to pos- 
terity,' said he, with just pride, ' with the code in my 
hand.' It was the first uniform system of laws which 
the French monarchy had ever possessed ; and being 
drawn up with consummate skill and wisdom, it at this 
day forms the code not only of France, but of a great 
portion of Europe besides. Justice, as between man 
and man, was administered on sound and fixed prin- 
ciples, and by unimpeached tribunals. 

"He gratified the French nation by adorning the 
capital, and by displaying in the Tuilleries a court as 
elaborately magnificent as that of Louis XIY. himself 
The old nobility, returning from their exile, mingled 
in those proud halls with the heroes of the revolution 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 281 

arj campaigns ; and over all the ceremonials of these 
stately festivities, Josephine presided with the grace 
and elegance of one born to be a queen. In the midst 
of the pomp and splendor of a court, in whose ante- 
chambers kings jostled each other, Napoleon himself 
preserved the plain and unadorned simplicity of his 
original dress and manners. The great emperor con- 
tinued throughout to labor more diligently than anj^ 
subaltern in office. His days were given to labor and 
his nights to study. If he was not with his army in 
the field, he traversed the provinces, examining with 
his own eyes into the minutest details of local arrange- 
ment ; and even from the centre of his camp he was 
continually issuing edicts which showed the accura- 
cy of his observation during these journeys, and his 
anxiety to promote by any means, consistent with his 
great purpose, the welfare of some French district, 
town, or even village." 

August 15th, 1807, the birthday of Napoleon, was a 
holiday of enthusiastic joy in the capital, and a scene 
of festivity in the palace of the Tuilleries. But already 
tokens of warfare nearer the throne than English 
anger, were apparent. Portugal and Spain were un- 
quiet. The former opened its harbors to English ves- 
sels, while the government of a degraded people was 
vacillating between alliance with France, and open 
sympathy with Britain. 

Spain was ruled by the voluptuous Charles TV., a 
prince of the Bourbon blood ; and was also secretly 
leaning to the cause of England. 



282 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BOJNAPARTE. 

The private yet royal messages to Joseph at this 
crisis, contain interesting allusions to the Mediterra- 
nean islands which Alexander gave the emperor, and 
intimate distinctly his designs upon Spain. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH 

" St. Cloud, September 6, IbOT. 

" Mt Beother — I have received your letter of the 
28th of August, in which you tell me that Greneral 
C. Berthier has started, but you do not acquaint 
me with his arrival. If the Eussians land on your 
coast treat them well, and send them to Bologna, 
where the Viceroy will give them a further destina- 
tion. I approve highly of Salicetti's proposal that 
you should send five thousand quintals of wheat to 
Corfu, 

" I have already informed you that, although the 
isles of Corfu do not form part of your kingdom, they 
are nevertheless under your civil and military govern- 
ment as commander-in-chief of my army of Naples. 
In general, I wish you to interfere as little as possible 
with the constitution of the country, and to treat the 
inhabitants well. The Emperor Alexander, who gave 
them their constitution, thinks it very good. Make 
General Caesar Berthier aware that I wish the inhabit- 
ants of these islands to have cause only to rejoice at 
having passed under my dominion ; that when I 
selected him I relied on his honesty and on his en- 
deavors to make his government popular. The idea 
of establishing packets is very sensible. My troopa 



. LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 283 

have taken possession of Cattaro ; the English are be- 
sieging Copenhagen, which still holds out."* 

NAPOLEON" TO JOSEPH. 

" FoNTAiNEBLEAU, October 31, ISOT. 

"My Brother — I do not know whether you have 
established the Code Napoleon in your kingdom. I 
wish it to become the civil law of your states, dating 
from the first of January next.f Germany has 
adopted it ; and Spain will do so soon. This v/ill be 
very useful. 

" You ought to arrest a M. B , a French eraigTant 

pensioned by England ; let him be shut up in a fort- 
ress till we have peace. Treat in the same way Lom- 
bardi, Perano, Cara, Martini, the two brothers Cerutti, 
Laurant Durazzo, the Abbe del Arco and the Cheva- 
lier de Costes. Prepare a prison in some fortress, and 
let all these people be confined in it. I have given 
orders to arrest all Corsicans pensioned by England. 
I have already sent many to Fenestrelle — among 
others, one Bertolazzi. I advise you to take the same 
measure in your kingdom. Order the detachment of 
the 81st, which is at Corfu, to join its depot in Italy. 
It has nine officers and one hundred and eighty-three 
men." 

* England had most unjustly sent an expedition against Denmark, 
a neutral power, in anticipation of affinities with France, and soon 
made the capital a scene of horrible slaughter and of ruin. 

f This allows only two months for a change of the whole civil law 
of the country. The prophecy that Spain would soon adopt the Coda 
Napoleon shows that Napoleon already contemplated the seizure of 
Spain. — Te. 



284 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" FoNTAiiraBLEAir, November 2, ISOt. 

" My Brother — I have received your letters of the 
23d. I have not yet quite made up my mind not to 
go to Italy ; I should not like to cross you on the 
road : as soon as I have decided I will write to you. 

" Pray make the expedition to Eeggio and Scylla, 
and deliver the continent from the presence of the 
English. You have ten times as many troops as are 
wanted for that purpose, and the season is favorable. 
I see with pleasure that you have ordered the Eussian 
garrison of Corfu, which has landed at Manfredonia, 
to be well received." 

Two weeks after the last date, Napoleon suddenly 
signified to Josephine his intention of proceeding to 
Ital}'", and bade her to be ready to accompany him in 
a few hours. His ostensible reason was to secure the 
grand duchy of Tuscany for his sister Eliza, and to 
confirm by his presence the treaty of Presburg, which 
had annexed. Venice and other Italian provinces to 
the kingdom of Italy. But his main object was doubt- 
less different from either of these. The conclusion is 
irresistible that his determination to divorce Josephine 
was fixed soon after the death of the prince royal of 
Holland, and that his present journey to Italy, was 
mainly for the purpose of sounding Eugene upon this 
point. 

The viceroy with his attendants came out to meet 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 285 

him as he approached Milan ; " Dismount, dismount," 
cried Napoleon to Eugene ; " come seat yourself with 
me, and let us enter your capital together." The 
viceroy did as desired, and the imperial carriage bear- 
ing Napoleon, Josephine, and Eugene, entered the 
gates of the city. The emperor signified to Eugene 
his approbation of all that he had done, and loaded 
him with favors. 

Jerome, who had married Miss Patterson of Balti- 
more during a cruise to this country, was compelled to 
send her home again upon his return to France, be- 
cause she had no place in the new dynasty, and Na- 
poleon refused to recognize her alliance with his 
family. And incidents of this tour increased the 
alienation between the emperor and Lucien, who met 
at Mantua. Napoleon thought of Charlotte, Lucien's 
daughter, a brilliant woman, for queen of Spain. His 
letter to Joseph, and M. Thiers in his history, give 
some account of the mysterious interview. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH 

"Milan, December 17, 1807. 

" My Brother — I saw Lucien at Mantua, and had 
with him a conversation of several hours. He has no 
doubt acquainted you with the sentiments with which 
he left me. His notions and his expressions are so 
different from mine that I can hardly make out what 
it is that he wants ; I think that he told me that he 
wished to send his eldest daughter to Paris to live 
with her grandmother. If he still is thus disposed, I 



286 LIFE OF NAPOLEON B.ONAPAETE. 

desire to be immediately informed of it; the girl must 
reach Paris in the course of the month of January, 
either accompanied by Lucien or under the charge of 
a governess who will take her to Madame. It ap- 
peared to me that there was in Lucien's mind a con- 
test between opposite feelings, and that he had not 
sufficient strength to decide in favor of any one of 
them. I exhausted all the means in my power to in- 
duce him, young as he is, to devote his talents to my 
service and to that of his country. If he wishes to let 
me have his daughter, she must set off without delay, 
and he must send me a declaration putting her entirely 
at my disposal ; for there is not a moment to lose ; 
events are hastening on, and my destiny must be ac- 
complished. If he has changed his mind, let me know 
it immediately, for I shall then make other arrangements. 

" Tell Lucien that I was touched by his grief and by 
the feelings which he expressed toward me ; and that 
I regret the more that he will not be reasonable and 
contribute to his own comfort and to mine. 

"I think that this letter will reach you on the 22d. 
My last news from Lisbon are dated the 28th of No- 
vember; the prince-regent had embarked for the 
Brazils ; he was still in the roadstead of Lisbon ; my 
troops were only at a few leagues' distance from the 
forts which form the entrance of the roadstead. I 
have heard from Spain no more than is contained in 
the letter which you have read. I am waiting with 
impatience for a clear and decisive answer, particularly 
with regard to Charlotte. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BCNAPAKTE. 287 

*'P. S. Mj troops entered Lisbon on the 80th of No- 
vember ; the prince royal escaped in a man-of-war ; I 
have taken five ships of the line and six frigates. On 
the 2d of December all was going on well at Lisbon. 
England declared war against Eussia on the 6th of 
December. Pass this news on to Corfu. The queen 
of Tuscany is here : she wishes to go to Madrid." 

The reader may be interested by Thiers's relation 
of the interview between Napoleon and Lucien : 

" M. de Meneval went during the night to bring 
Lucien from his inn to Napoleon's palace. Instead of 
throwing himself into his brother's arms, Xucien ad- 
dressed him with a haughtiness excusable in a man 
without material power, but perhaps carried further 
than mere self-respect required. The interview was 
painful and stormy, but not useless. Among the pos- 
sible arrangements in Spain one was that of the mar- 
riage of a French princess to Ferdinand. Napoleon 
had just received a letter from Charles IV., repeating 
his request for sucli a marriage, and, though he leaned 
toward a more radical solution, he did not exclude 
this middle course from his projects. He wished 
Lucien then to give him his daughter by his first wife 
to be brought up by the empress-mother, to imbibe 
the feelings of the family, and to be sent to Spain to 
regenerate the Bourbons. If it should not suit him to 
give her this part to play, there were other thrones, 
more or less lofty, to which lie could raise her. As 
for Lucien, he wished to make him a French prince 



288 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

and even king of Portugal, which would put him in 
the neighborhood of his daughter, on condition of his 
dissolving his second marriage, the divorced wife be- 
ing indemnified by a title and a great fortune. 

"These arrangements were practicable, but they 
were demanded with authority and refused with anger ; 
and the brothers separated, both excited and irritated, 
but without a quarrel, since a part of what Napoleon 
asked — the sending Lucien's daughter to Paris — took 
place a few days after." 

Then followed the Milan Decrees, to avenge with 
greater severity than by the Berlin edicts, the in- 
creased embarrassment of French commerce under 
new orders of the English government. Napoleon pro- 
claimed all vessels a lawful prize which should sub- 
mit to the British policy toward France. The United 
States were independent of dictation from England, 
and their government was assured by the emperor of 
exemption from his rigorous measures. He commu- 
nicated the stringent law to the government of Naples. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Turin, December 28, 180t. 

" My Brother — I send you a copy of a decree which 

1 have just issued in consequence of the changes in 

the commerce by sea, I wish it to be executed in 

your dominions.* Equip as many privateers as you 

* The Milan Decree, which declsred subject to capture every ship 
which had touched at any port in the British islands or in the British 
colonies. It was provoked by Orders in Council, which declared sub- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 289 

can to pursue the ships which communicate with Sicilj, 
Malta, or Gibraltar, and which go to and from En- 
gland. I have ordered an embargo upon all Sardinian 
ships and ships coming from Sardinia. It is by means 
of Sardinia that the English correspond at present. I 
have ordered all vessels coming from thence to be 
stopped. It is advisable not to make this measure 
public. I start in an hour, and I shall reach Paris on 
the night of the 1st. Whereupon I pray God that he 
may keep you in his holy and honorable care." 

Napoleon after a hasty tour through the other Italian 
provinces, returned with Josephine to Paris. 

Meanwhile an army under Junot had advanced 
upon Lisbon, whose fugitive court sailed for the coasts 
of Brazil, to find security in their magnificent domin- 
ions there. Portugal therefore, passed immediately 
from English into French possession. The peoj^le, in- 
dignant at the cowardly flight of their rulers, ac- 
quiesced for the time in Napoleon's sovereignty. 

But Spain, the greater prize, was not his own. He 
had said before the battle of Jena, referring to the un- 
reliable course of that kingdom, " The Bourbons of 
Spain shall be replaced by princes of my own family." 
Manuel Godoy, one of the king's body guard, had by 
bis fine person and attainments won the affections and 
control of the licentious queen. Of the three sons of 

ject to capture every ship which had not touched at a port in the Brit- 
ish islands or in the British colonies. Between the two all oommeice 
by sea by any nation whatever was prohibited. — Te. 

13 



290 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Charles IV., Ferdinand, Cailos, and Francisco, Ferdi- 
nand was the heir-apparent to the crown ; and although 
a profligate youth of twenty-five, more popular than 
his equally imbecile father or Godoy, with the major- 
ity of the people. It was with him Napoleon contem- 
plated the marriage of Charlotte, the daughter of 
Lucien. Grodoy was the object of universal scorn. 
His house, March 18th, was pillaged ; and on the fol- 
lowing day he was rescued from violent death by the 
guards. Charles lY., greatly alarmed, abdicated 'the 
throne, and Ferdinand was proclaimed king amid the 
wild applause of the people. Murat, Grrand Duke of 
Berg, commanding the army in Spain, marched to 
Madrid, and took possession of that capital. He re- 
fused to recognize Ferdinand's right to the crown, and 
waited for the mandate of Napoleon. The trembling 
Charles appealed to the emperor. The conqueror of 
Spain revealed his unfolding plans to its future king : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"St. Cloud, March 31, 1808. 

" My Brother — You have seen the news from Spain 
in the Moniteur. I will tell you, as a secret^ that my 
troops entered Madrid on the 24:th ; that King Charles 
protests against all that has been done ;* he believes 
his life to be in danger, and he has implored my protec- 
tion. Under these circumstances I shall go. I have 
many troops in Spain ; they have been well received 
there. I need not tell you that I have not recognized the 
* His abdication and Ferdinand's succession. — Tb. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 291 

new king,* nor has he been acknowledged by tho 
Grand Duke of Berg.f They have made each other 
civil speeches without meeting, as the Grand Duke 
could not treat him as a king until I had recognized 
him. I may start any day for Madrid. This infor- 
mation is for your use, and for you alone." 

April 2d, Napoleon set out for Bayonne, a town on 
the frontier, and at the base of the Pyrenees, to meet 
the new monarch of Spain, who had been persuaded 
to believe that a personal interview with Napoleon 
would secure to him his sceptre. He arrived on the 
20th, and was soon followed by the anxious old king, 
the queen, and Godoy. Here were mutual recrimina- 
tions, the repetition of domestic broils, and disclosures 
of their almost idiotic follies in government, and brutal 
vices in private life. K crimes so manifold could 
justify the policy of a majestic, ambitious mind, then 
was there an excuse for the grasp of power with which 
the emperor took this splendid prize. 

The result of the conference was, the resignation by 
Charles TV. of all sovereignty, for a magnificent do- 
main and pension, which was immediately followed 
with a similar submission, as the only alternative, by 
Ferdinand VII. 

Manuel Godoy, who, because of his success in effect- 
ing the treaty of Basle, had received the sounding 
title of Prince of Peace, assented to the disposal of the 
crown, for the sake of safety and luxury with the 

♦ Ferdinand VII. f Murat.— Tr. 



292 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

guiltj queen, whose unblushing shame sought, rather 
than avoided, the eye of the world. 

Napoleon issued his proclamation to the Spaniards, 
promising them fresh political and commercial life, 
and a constitution which should secure their national 
freedom and glory. He announced to the king of 
Naples his prospective transfer to the vacant throne : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Batonne, May 11, 1808. 

" My Brother — You will find annexed the letter of 
King Charles to the Prince of the Asturias and a copy 
of my treaty with the king. The Grand Duke of 
Berg is lieutenant-general of the kingdom, president 
of the junta, and generalissimo of the Spanish forces. 
King Charles starts in two days for Compeigne. The 
Prince of the Asturias is going toward Paris. The other 
Infants are to occupy villas in the environs of Paris. 
King Charles, by his treaty with me, surrenders to 
me all his rights to the crown of Spain. The prince 
had already renounced his pretended title of king, the 
abdication of King Charles in his favor having been 
involuntary. The nation, through the Supreme 
Council of Castile, asks me for a king ; I destine this 
crown for you. Spain is a very different thing from 
Naples ; it contains eleven millions of inhabitants, and 
has more than 150,000,000 of revenue, without count- 
ing the Indies and the immense revenue to be derived 
from them. It is besides a throne which places you 
at Madrid, at three days' journey from France, which 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 293 

borders the whole of one of its frontiers. At Madrid 
you are in France ; Naples is the end of the world. I 
wish you therefore, immediately after the receipt of 
this letter, to appoint "whom you please regent, and to 
come to Bayonne by way of Turin, Mont Cenis, and 
Lyons. You will receive this letter oil the 19th, you 
will start on the 20th, and you will be here on the 1st 
of June. Before you go, leave instructions with 
Marshal Jourdan as to the disposition of your troops, 
and make arrangements as if you were to be absent 
only to the first of July. Be secret, however ; your 
journey will probably excite only too much suspicion, 
but you will say that you are going to the north of 
Italy to confer with me on important matters." 

Joseph was a generous, high-minded man, "too 
kind," as Napoleon expressed it, to be a king. The 
contrast between these brothers, in the milder virtues 
of humanity, is seen in their fraternal correspondence. 
The king of Naples reached Bayonne on the 7th of 
June, where he was waited upon by the Spanish con- 
gress, and welcomed to the sovereignty of the realm. 
July 9th he departed with an imposing train, for 
Madrid. His accession was transmitted to the powers 
of Europe, and acknowledged by nearly all of them ; 
but by none more cordially than by Alexander of 
Russia. Napoleon embraced the opportunity, as he 
regarded it, of "regenerating Spain," and under this 
brilliant form of ambition, began there the career of 
Idnojly piracy which ultimately stranded his proud 



294 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

and resplendent fortunes upon the rocks of St. Helena. 
It is true, never was the pursuit of glory, and the hal- 
lucination that the world's redemption was in the 
hands of a gifted man, more grand in development 
and design, and more sadly baptized in blood, than 
was Napoleon's. 

Joseph recoiled from his mission in Spam, and 
found it, as he anticipated, no pastime to take posses- 
sion of an ancient throne. His burdened, unquiet 
heart was known only to his master, to whom he ex- 
pressed his fears, but received little sympathy. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

"July 18, 1S08. 

" Sire — It appears to me that no one has told your 
majesty the whole truth. I will not conceal it. Our 
undertaking is a very great one : to get out of it with 
honor requires vast means. I do not see double from 
fear. When I left Kaples, I saw the risks before me, 
and I now say to myself every day, •' My life is noth- 
ing, I give it to you." But if I am to live without the 
shame of failure, I must be supplied largely with men 
and money. Then the kindness of my nature may 
make me popular. Now, while all is doubtful, kind- 
ness looks like timidity, and I try to conceal mine. 
To get quickly through this task, so hateful to a sover- 
eign, to prevent further insurrections, to have less, 
blood to shed and fewer tears to dry, enormous forces 
must be employed. Whatever be the result in Spain, 
its king must lament, for, if he conquers, it will be by 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 295 

force ; but, as the die is cast, the struggle should be 
cut short. Mj position does not frighten me, but it is 
one in which a king never was before. I have not a 
single partisan." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Batonne, July 19, 1808, 10 P.M. 

"My Beother — I received your letter of the 18th at 
three o'clock this morning. I am sorry to see that 
your courage seems to fail you ; it is the only mis- 
fortune which I feared. Troops are pouring in con- 
tinually from all quarters. You have ^a great many 
partisans in Spain ; you have all the honest people, but 
they fear to come forward. I do not, however, deny 
that you have a task, but it is a great and a glorious 
task. Marshal Bessi^res' victory, entirely defeating 
Cuesta and the army of the line in Gallicia, has greatly 
improved the whole state of affairs ; it is worth more 
than a reinforcement of thirty thousand men. As 
General Dupont has been joined by the divisions of 
Gobert and Vedel, the attack must be vigorously 
pressed in that direction. General Dupont has good 
troops ; he will succeed. I would rather that the 2d 
and 12th light infantry had reinforced Marshal Bes- 
si^res; but, since you have thought proper to take 
them to Madrid, keep them for your guard ; they will 
soon be joined by two thousand conscripts from the 
battalions on drill ; and these two fine regiments, with 
those of your guard, will form you a splendid reserve, 
You ought not to be surprised at having to conquer 



296 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

your kingdom. Philip Y. and Henry IV. were forced 
to conquer theirs. Be happy ; do not allow yourself 
to be so easily affected, and do not doubt for an in- 
stant that every thing will end sooner and more hap- 
pily than you think." 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" Madrid, July 22, 1808. 
"SiEE — If your majesty would write to General 
Caulaincourt that you are informed that in cold blood 
he arranged the pillage of the churches and houses in 
Cuenza, it might do much good. I know that the 
public sale in Madrid of the church plate has done 
much harm. Every sensible person in the Govern- 
ment and in the army says that a defeat would have 
been less injurious." 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" Madrid, July 23, 1808, 
"Sire — Marshal Moncey has arrived. He found 
every thing hostile on his march. He complains bit- 
terly that the pillage by General Caulaincourt has 
increased the general exasperation. Since Cuenza 
was plundered many of the wealthier families fly with 
their property." 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

"Madrid, July 24, 1808 

" Sire — The honest people are as little on my side 
as the rogues are. No, Sire, you are deceived. Your 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 297 

*^ 

glory will be shipwrecked in Spain. My tomb will 
be a monument of your want of power to support me, 
for no one will suspect you of want of will. This will 
happen, for I am resolved under no circumstances to 
recross the Ebro. 

" Yet fifty thousand good troops, and fifty millions, 
sent before the end of three months, might set things 
right. The recall of five or six of your generals; 
sending hither Jourdan and Maurice Mathieu, who 
are honest men ; on your part, absolute confidence in 
me ; on my part, absolute power over the ofiicers who 
misconduct themselves — the union of all this alone 
can save the country and the army." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Bordeaux, July 31, 1808. 

" My Brother — I have received your letters of the 
24:th, 25th, and 26th. The style of your letter of the 
24th does not please me. To die is not your business, 
but to live and to conquer, which you are doing, and 
shall do. 

" I shall find in Spain the Pillars of Hercules, but not 
the limits of my power. 

" Troops and succors of every description are on their 
way toward you. Your forces are more by one third 
than are necessary if they are well managed. 

" Caulaincourtdid what was perfectly right at Cuenza. 
The city was pillaged : this is one of the rights of war, 
since it was captured while the defenders were still in 
arms. Russia has recognized you ; the letter announc- 



298 LIFE OF NAPOLEOiSr BONAPARTE. 

ing it lias been dispatched to Count Strogonoff. On 
reaching Paris I shall learn that Austria has done the 
same. Your position may be painful as king, but, 
as a general, it is brilliant. There is only one thing 
to fear : take care not to impair the spirit of the army 
— not to sacrifice it to the Spaniards. ITo measures 
are to be kept with ruffians who assassinate our 
wounded, and commit every kind of horror ; the way 
in which they are treated is quite right. I have told 
you already, and I repeat it, since the glorious victory 
of Medina de Eio Seco, which so promptly settled the 
question of Spain, Marshal Bessi^res is absolute master 
of the north. Make yourself easy as to the result. I 
am not surprised at what has happened ; if I had not 
expected it, should I have sent one hundred and fifty 
thousand men into Spain, and raised two conscriptions, 
and spent eighty millions ? I would rather have lost 
a battle than have had to read Moncey's report. My 
health is good. I reached Bordeaux this morning. I 
am going to Eochefort." 

Napoleon returned to Paris, again to be received as 
a god — the idolized and dazzling wonder of their deep- 
est homage. His morality beyond a reasonable doubt, 
was unsullied by vice, and pre-eminent among mon- 
archs "While adding vast empires to his own, France 
was covered with improvements begun or completed, 
which emanated from his exhaustless brain. But there 
are sublime and beautiful exhibitions of a ruling pas- 
sion in human life, which do not change the selfish. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 299 

immoral character of the motive, tried hy the eternal 
principles of pure and righteous action. Napoleon can 
never, without violence to the conscience of mankind, 
be viewed in the light of self- forgetful love for op- 
pressed humanity — a man whose benign patriotism 
borrowed strength and excellence from a serious re- 
gard to the benevolent sovereignty of the " King of 
kings." But he was a great conqueror, and a great 
monarch. 

Austria now spread again upon the horizon a 
cloud of threatening. She had desired an occasion 
for rupture with expanding France. Prussia was 
equally restless. To prepare for the rising storm, by 
renewing the treaty of peace and united strength, 
made at Tilsit, the emperor appointed a meeting 
with Alexander of Russia, at Erfurth in Germany. 
He arrived there amid the gathered aristocracy and 
royalty of kingdoms, September 27th, 1808. The 
autocrat was friendly and pliable, pledging himself to 
sustain Napoleon in his plans, if he might be equally 
favored in his designs upon Turkey and Sweden. 

A dislinguished lady* who was an eye-witness of 
the splendid scenes at Erfurth, thus describes them : 

" What an extraordinary commotion reigned at that 
time in the contracted circle of the city of Erfarth, now 
so deserted! What an epoch was that in which the 
all-powerful will of the extraordinary man who for a 
number of years reposed on the rock of St. Helena, in 
a marvelous dream of life, brought together as by a 
* Madame de Scliopenhauaer. 



300 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

stroke of the magician's wand, emperors, kings, and 
other distinguished men. What a clatter of brilliant 
equipages, among which crowds of spectators, attracted 
by curiosifcy, were hustled to and fro at the risk of 
being crushed to death. Citizens, peasants, foreigners, 
from every country ; courtiers in richly embroidered 
costumes; Polish Jews, statesmen, of&cers covered 
with ribbons and crosses, citizen's wives, and elegantly 
dressed ladies, porters, hod-carriers, all squeezing and 
struggling to open a passage for themselves. From 
time to time, French troops marching by, with bands 
playing, added to the confasion in the streets. The 
streets were insufficient to contain the crowds which 
flowed into Erfurth. The principal inhabitants were 
driven from their apartments, and took refuge in their 
servants' rooms, in order to accommodate the retinue 
of the French Emperor. In the most remote streets, 
the owners of houses reaped a golden harvest by the 
hire of rooms. The hotels were filled to overflowing. 
Napoleon Had caused the principal performers of the 
French theatre to be present : Talma, Mes'd's. Puches- 
nois. Mars, the beautiful Greorges, the charming Bour- 
goin, appeared many times a week in their most 
brilliant characters before the august assembly. A 
small theatre had been fitted up in the Jesuits' col- 
lege for this purpose, with a promptitude and elegance 
truly French. Box tickets were distributed for each 
representation to the native and foreign ladies, but it 
was no easy matter to obtain them. After urgent so- 
licitation myself and friends had the good fottune to 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 301 

obtaia tickets for the representation of CEdipus, in 
which Madame Eaucort and Talma were to appear. 
At the top of the stairs we were received by a jfierce- 
looking soldier of the guard, who distributed us in 
several boxes, almost empty at the time. I was quite 
fortunate at being seated with two friends, in the front 
of a box near the stage, whence we could easily see 
all that was passing in the parquet. We congratu- 
lated ourselves at being so comfortably seated, but our 
joy was premature. The box adjoining ours was filled 
to excess. The door of ours was quickly opened, 
'How is this?' cried a soldier or policeman, I know 
not which, 'how is this — three women on three chairs 
in place of six !' At the same time he placed two ladies 
between us, with whom we were, fortunately, ac- 
quainted. Every box, as well as ours, was closely 
packed ; we could scarcely move. The heat was op- 
pressive, but we had no time to think of it. The in- 
terest of the grand display which was forming under 
our eyes in the parquet, so occupied our attention 
that we thought but little of the inconvenience of our 
position. 

"Immediately in front of the stage were placed two 
arm-chairs for the emperors : at each side were ranges 
of ccmmon chairs, for the kings and reigning princes. 
The space behind the seats began to be occupied. 
There were present statesmen and generals from most 
of the European powers — men whose names were then 
celebrated, and have become a part of history. The 
French were distinguished from the more serious and 



302 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

modest Germans, by their richly embroidered uni- 
forms, and an air of vivacity and confidence. Tiiere 
were Berthier, Soult, Caulaincourt, Savary, Lannes, 
Duroc, and many others equally celebrated. It seemed 
as if the greatness of the master was reflected from the 
countenance of each, of them. There was Goethe, 
calm and full of dignity; the venerable Weiland. 
The grand duke of Weimar had invited them to Er- 
furth. The Duke of Gotha, several German princes, 
reigning or allied to reigning families, were grouped 
around the two veterans of German literature. 

" Drums were heard from without. * It is the em- 
peror,' was heard from every box. ' Fools, what do 
you mean?' cried the officer in command to the drum- 
mers, ' it is only a king 1' In fact, a German king 
entered, and soon after three others. The kings of 
Saxony, Bavaria, and Wirtemberg entered without 
any parade ; the king of "Westphalia, who came in 
later, eclipsed all by the brilliancy of his rich em- 
broidery and jewelry. The Emperor Alexander, 
majestically tall, then entered. The state box oppo- 
site the stage, dazzled the eyes with its brilliancy, 
The Queen of Westphalia, covered with diamonds, sat 
in the centre ; next to her, the charming Stephanie, 
grand duchess of Baden, was conspicuous by her 
graces rather than by the splendor of her apparel. 
Some German princesses sat near the two reigning 
princesses ; the gentlemen and ladies of the court 
occupied tbe back part of the box. 

" At this time, Talleyrand appeared in a box fitted 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 303 

up for him on a level with the parquet near the stage, 
on account of his lameness at that time preventing him 
from occupying a place in the parquet. The emperor 
and kings stood before the box, to converse with the 
ministers conveniently seated. Every body had ar- 
rived. He alone who had collected this magnificent 
assembly was yet wanting. All, for a long time, 
awaited his presence. 

" At length, a loud beating of drums was heard, all 
eyes were directed with a restless curiosity to the en- 
trance. At length, appeared the man, the most in- 
comprehensible of this incomprehensible era. Dressed, 
according to his custom, in the simplest manner, he 
hastily bowed to the sovereigns present, who had 
been obliged to wait so long for him, and seated 
himself in the arm chair at the right of the Emperor 
of Kussia. His appearance poorly contrasted with 
that of the superb Alexander. The four kings were 
seated on common chairs, and the play commenced. 

" In vain Talma displayed all his art, the parquet be- 
fore us occupied our whole attention. In the mean 
time, the gens d'armes at the door of our box, exerted 
themselves to complete our lacking education, and to in- 
form us between the acts of the etiquette to be observed 
in the presence of the master of the world. ' Take 
away that lorgnette; the emperor does not like it I' 
cried one of them, in leaning over the ladies who sat 
behind us. ' Sit upright. Do not stretch out your 
neck ; it is disagreable to the emperor !' cried another. 
The impertinence was great ; but we took example 



804 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

from tlie kings and princesses before ns, and patiently 
endured wlaat we could not cliange. 

"Immediately after the opening of the tragedy, 
which Napoleon had, probably, seen a hundred times, 
he put himself at his ease, and slept profoundly. It 
was well known that at any hour of the day or night 
he could sleep when he wished. Ocular, witnesses 
assure us that in the midst of a battle, he purposely 
gave himself up to sleep, to recruit his strength, and 
could awake at any moment he wished. On the day 
of this representation at Erfurth, he was fatigued in ex- 
ercising his troops for many successive hours. 

" It was a singular spectacle to us, to see this terrible 
man give himself up to gentle sleep, whose vast plans 
caused happiness or unhappiness to half the world. 
We continued to contemplate with an astonishment 
mixed with fear this profile of a fine antique, for 
which the dark uniform of Alexander served as a 
back ground. 

" Twenty years have rolled away since — in 1828 — 
scarcely the third part of the life of man, yet how 
many changes have happened in this short space of 
time ! What a lofty flight has the world taken in this 
fifth part of an age ! At that time one could scarcely 
have dreamed what has actually occurred. With what 
fury has the scythe of time raged, and what a terrible 
harvest it has mown in so short a period. Where are 
the kings, the potentates, the grandees who were 
assembled in this theatre? Where is he, even he who 
had collected them together? He reposes forever. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 805 

upon the rock round which dash the ocean's waves ! 
The short and fair life of Alexander is finished. The 
kings of Saxon}^, Bavaria, and Wirtemberg lie in 
their marble tombs. The late king Jerome alone sur- 
vives, but his renown has vanished with his fantastic 
royalty, like a dream of the morning. 

"The grand duchess of Baden, the beautiful Ste- 
phanie, for a long time lamented her husband who was 
taken away in the flower of his age. The Duke of 
Grotha, who needed not the title of prince to charm the 
world, is dead, and with him, his race is extinct. The 
Duke Charles Augustus of Weimar, lives only in the 
remembrance of his friends. How many imposing 
names iflight be added to this melancholy list !" 

The divorce of Josephine came into the prospective 
securities of the throne, whicb were discussed during 
this royal conference with the sovereigns of Europe. 
With this cruel resort of ambition before his mind, he 
repaired again to Paris. Napoleon gave Josephine 
no intimation of his design, but continued to treat her 
with all the cordiality he had ever manifested. Her 
disposition was naturally joyous. She was inclined to 
find a brighter view in every picture of life, and it wa? 
doubtless this which supported her so well under the 
sad apprehension of Napoleon's intentions toward her. 
Her hopefulness^ also, led her at times fondly to trust 
that the storm would retire, while reason persuaded 
her that the emperor would not allow her happiness 
to thwart the plan which she knew he cherished 
What was she in compariBon with him ? What was 



S06 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

her poor human heart worth, and what availed the 
treasure of its affection to him, who made them sub- 
ordinate to a throne, and the inscription of his name 
on its columns? Bleeding affections, blasted hopes, 
and tears, never bowed the will of Napoleon. Jo- 
sephine perfectly understood that such trifles in his 
path would be swept away like chaff before the re- 
sistless march of the whirlwind. 

Let not Napoleon, however, be misunderstood. As 
we have said before, he loved Josephine, and this, 
probably, with a stronger affection than he ever gave 
to any other object. But he would not let one of the 
purposes or plans which he had formed go unaccom- 
plished, though the world were to perish. "All, or 
nothing," was his motto when a boy in Corsica, and it 
was the one feeling of his heart when he became a man. 
No plan which he made was a trivial one with him, 
for it affected himself. Every thing, in his estimation, 
should be subservient to him, and every thing over 
which he had the control was made so. With this 
view, we can easily see that his love for Josephine 
would not endure for a moment, if it conflicted with 
any of his designs for self-aggra,ndizement. The em- 
press understood it, and knowing that one of his cher- 
ished schemes was for the perpetuity of his empire, 
she now clearly saw that her own sacrifice was inev- 
itable. The Prince of Holland had died ; the viceroy, 
Eugene, though adopted by Napoleon, Josephine knew 
could never be the successor to the empire. Upon no 
living member of his own family would the emperor 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 307 

fix his choice, and there was thus left no alternative 
to his seeking a wife who might bring him up an heir 
to the throne. 

It is not at all unnatural, that Kapoleon should have 
so strong a desire for posterity. Aside from political 
motives, and inordinate self-love, such a desire belongs 
to every man. It is in a certain degree the outgoing 
of every one's natural affection. The owner of a sin- 
gle hut, or of a petty farm, is unhappy if he have ' 

"No son of his succeeding," 

to whom he can leave his solitary estate. No one 
quits the world without desiring that there should be 
^ome link to connect him still to it ; that there remain 
behind him some stream of influence which has risen 
in himself, and which, when he is gone, shall flow on 
and move mankind. It is a wish natural to universal 
humanity, and there are few to which men cling with 
such sincere attachment. It belonged to Napoleon in 
common with his race, and was stronger in him than 
in any other man, because his power was more exten- 
sive, and his influence vaster ; it was a desire com- 
mensurate with his own greatness, which grew with 
every victory, and strengthened with every increase 
of his power, winding itself more and more closely 
about his heart with every step taken in his ascending 
career; and which accompanied every thought of 
glory, and held a power over him only equaled by 
that which he himself swayed so tremendously ovei 
the minds of other men. 



308 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The purpose, wliich was ripening, now disappeared 
from tlie surface of affairs, before the stormy events 
crowding upon him, Spain was in revolt and revolu- 
tion. England had formed an alliance with that king- 
dom, and her troops were on its soil, while her fleet 
swept the coasts. The mountain fastnesses were filled 
with armed men — Joseph was compelled to flee from 
Madrid — and the butchery of French soldiers was ter- 
rible. Dupont, Moncey, and Duchesne, had been de- 
feated, and the siege of Saragossa, by Lefebre, was 
abandoned. ISTapoleou hastened to Vittoria, where the 
French legions lay encamped, awaiting his arrival. 
Immediately the enthusiasm rose, and the forces were 
in motion. 

" Marshals Yicfcor and Lefebre, with forty thousand 
men, were commanded to march upon the Spanish 
troops who were waiting for a junction with the ap- 
proaching English army, in Biscay. Soult was or- 
dered to put to rout Count de Belvidere in Estrema- 
dura, while Napoleon himself, taking the main strength 
of his army, hastened with the rapidity and resistless- 
ness of an avalanche against the whole left wing of the 
Spanish host, as it lay stretched from Bilboa to Burgos. 
Everywhere, he was successful. The Spanish armies 
melted away like dew before him, and the fate of all 
those upon the Ebro was finally sealed, almost before 
the English forces had heard that Napoleon had ar- 
rived in Spain. Following up his successes, the em- 
peror marched at once upon Madrid, which he entered 
upon the 4:th of December, after a stern but ineffectual 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 309 

resistance. Leaving the capital lie joined the division 
under Soult, which was in rapid pursuit of Sir John 
Moore and the English army. Perceiving, however, 
that Moore was no longer worthy of his own attention, 
he intrusted the consummation of his ruin to Soult, 
and returned with his utmost haste to Paris, riding on 
post-horses, on one occasion, not less than seventy- 
five English miles in five hours and a half. The cause 
of this sudden change and extraordinary haste, was a 
suflS.cient one ; and it ere long transpired."" 

He had received dispatches from France apprising 
him that Austria, improving his absence in Spain, with 
his army, was uniting with England to advance upon 
him from the north, to regain the lost glory of Aus- 
terlitz, Joseph, not apprised of these decisive indica- 
tions of a continental war, sent him upon the first of 
January, with his fratCFnal salutations, warm expres- 
sions of his desire for peace. The emperor replied : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

• 

"BENEyENTO, January 6, 1809. 

" My Brother — I thank you for your new-year's 
day wishes. I have no hopes of peace in Europe for 
this year at least. I expect it so little, that I signed 
yesterday a decree for raising one hundred thousand 
men. The fierce hatred of England, the events at 
Constantinople, all betoken that the hour of peace and 
repose has not yet struck. As for you, your kingdom 
seems to be settling into tranquillity. The provinces 
of Leon, of the Asturias, and of New Castile, desire 



310 LIFE OF ISrAPOLEOlT BONAPARTE. 

nothing but rest. I hope that Gallicia will soon be at 
peace, and that the country will be evacuated by the 
English. 

" Saragossa must fall before long, and General St. 
Cjr, wbo has thirty thousand men, ought to settle the 
affairs of Catalonia." 

On the 15tli he ordered the seizure of paintings, for 
the Louvre : 

" I think that I wrote to advise you to make your 
entry into Madrid on the 14th. Denon is anxious for 
some pictures ; I wisb you to seize all that you can 
find in the confiscated bouses and suppressed convents, 
and to make me a present of fifty chefs d'oeuvre, wbick 
I want for tbe Museum in Paris. At some future 
time I will give you others in their places. Consult 
Denon for this purpose. He may make proposals to 
you. You are aware that I want only what is really 
good, and it is supposed that you are richly provided." 

Napoleon reached the capital January 22 d, 1809. 

Meanwhile, Soult had chased the enemy to the hills 
near Corunna, with one of the most ruinous, sang ain- 
ary, horrible defeats in the annals of war. It was in" 
this campaign that Sir John Moore, tbe brave leader 
of the retreating columns, fell. Joseph returned to 
Madrid, to continue a short time bis troubled reign, 
uncbeered by the willing, grateful homage of his 
subjects. 

The condition of tbe unbappy king, of whom Na- 
poleon had complained that he "was changing the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 311 

government, and becoming too indulgent ;" and the 
dictatorial policy of the emperor, are vividly portrayed 
in the affecting protest of Joseph. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" February 19, 1809. 

" Sire — It grieves me to infer from your letter of the 
6th of February that, with respect to the affairs at 
Madrid, you listen to persons who are interested in 
deceiving you. I have not your entire confidence, 
and yet without it my position is not tenable. I shall 
not repeat all that I have frequently written on the 
state of the finances. I devote to business all my 
faculties from seven in the morning till eleven at 
night. I have not a farthing to give to anybody. I 
am in the fourth year of my reign, and my guards are 
still wearing the coats which I gave to them four 
years ago. All complaints are addressed to me ; all 
prejudices are opposed to me. I have no real power 
beyond Madrid, and even at Madrid I am every day 
counteracted by people who grieve that things are not 
managed according to their own system. They accuse 
me of being too mild ; they would become infamous 
if I were more severe and left them to the judgment 
of the tribunals. 

" You thought proper to sequester the property often 
families ; more than twice that number have been 
thus treated. Officers are in possession of every habit- 
able house ; two thousand servants belonging to the 
fiequestered families have been turned into the streets 



312 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

All beg ; tlie boldest try to rob and to assassinate my 
of&cers. All those who with me sacrificed their posi- 
tions in the kingdom of Naples are still billeted on 
the inhabitants. Without any capital, without any 
revenue, without any money, what can I do? This 
picture, dark as it is, is not exaggerated. I am not 
dismayed ; I shall surmount these difficulties. Heaven 
has given to me qualities which will enable me to tri- 
umph over obstacles and enemies, but what Heaven 
has not given to me is a temper capable of bearing the 
opposition and the insults of those who ought to serve 
me, and, above all, a temper capable of enduring the 
displeasure of one whom I have too much loved to be 
able ever to hate him. 

" If, then, Sire, my whole life does not entitle me to 
your perfect confidence ; if you think it necessary to 
surround me by poor creatures who make me blush 
for myself; if I must be insulted even in my own 
capital ; if I am denied the right of naming the govern- 
ors and the commanders who are always before me, 
and make me contemptible to the Spaniards and pow- 
erless to do good; if, instead of judging me by results, 
you put me on my trial in every detail — under such 
circumstances, Sire, I have no alternative. I am King 
of Spain only through the force of your arms ; I might 
be so through the love of the Spanish people, but for 
that purpose I must govern them in my own way. I 
have often heard you say, every animal has its instinct 
and ought to follow it. I' will be such a king as the 
brother and the friend of your majesty ought to be, 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 313 

or I will return to Mortefontaine, where I ask for no 
happiness but to live without humiliation and to die 
with a good conscience. 

" Only a fool remains long in a false position. In 
forty years of life I have learned only what I knew 
almost at the beginning, that all is vanity except a 
good conscience and self esteem. 

"A Spaniard has let me know that he has been or- 
dered to give to Marshal Duroc, day by day, an exact 
account of all that I do. I am complained of for hav- 
ing allowed five counselors of Castile to return, while 
fifteen more were free. Why did I do so ? Because 
advantage had been taken of their absence to pillage 
their houses. Sire, my misery is as much as I can 
bear ; what I deserve and what I expect from you is 
consolation and encouragement; without them the 
burden becomes intolerable : I must slip from under 
it before it crushes me. 

"If there is on earth a man whom you esteem or 
love more than you do me, I ought not to be King 
of Spain, and my happiness requires me to cease to 
be so. 

" I write to you my whole thoughts, for I will not 
deceive you or myself. 

" I do not choose to have an advocate with you ; as 

soon as that becomes necessary, I retire. During my 

whole life I shall be your best, perhaps your only, 

friend. I will not remain King of Spain unless you 

can think this of me. Many illusions have left me ; 

I cling a little to that of your friendship ; necessary 

14 



314 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

as it is to my happiness, I ought not to continue to 
risk losing it by playing the part of a dupe." 

April 6th, Austria issued a declaration of hostilities, 
and three days later. Archduke Charles crossed the 
Inn with one hundred and eighty thousand troops. 
With so large an army in Spain, Napoleon could hope 
for victory only by the concentrated and rapid action 
which before had won the field. Sending out couriers 
to summon his battalions beyond the Alps and on the 
Ehine to the conflict, without escort or equipage, he 
rode with his unequaled speed when events demanded 
his presence, accompanied by the devoted Josephine, 
to Strasburg. He was at the head of the army, April 
13th, and on the 17th ordered Davoust and Massena 
commanding the two wings of the army, to advance 
upon the enemy, while he led the centre, hemming in 
completely the divisions of Charles. After a battle at 
AbcDsburg, on the 20th, a decisive, wasting conflict 
occurred at Landshut on the following day. The 
archduke lost nine thousand men, thirty guns, and his 
stores. Then mustering his entire strength, he fell 
upon the enemy at Bckmuhl, where an army of two 
hundred thousand men presented, as they believed, a 
resistless barrier to the weakened forces of the victor. 

The struggle began at two o'clock in the afternoon, 
and continued with fierce activity till night came down 
upon the Grolgotha of battle. The Austrians were 
driven from the field and retreated toward Eatisbon. 
The stupendous work was done by falling upon the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 815 

foe ia full force at selected points, like the direct and 
crushing descent of the red bolts from the echoing 
sloud upon the shivered oak. Napoleon took twenty 
thousand prisoners, fifteen imperial standards, and a 
large number of cannon. At Ratisbon, Charles, be- 
sides attempting to defend the town, again gave the 
French battle, and was overwhelmed with their impet- 
uous legions, and compelled to flee into Bohemia, 
abandoning Vienna to the mercy of the conqueror. 

The lemperor, who seemed to have a charmed exist- 
ence, and had stood unharmed amid the hail of conflict, 
was wounded in this deadly encounter in one of his 
feet, which was hastily dressed and forgotten. Five 
days had given him another triumph over Austria ; 
an incredible result to his paralyzed foes. 

On the 24th of April, he reviewed his army, and 
lavished rewards of heroism upon his elated troops. 
Davoust was created Duke of Eckmuhl. May 10th, 
he was before the walls of Vienna. 

" The emperor had already quitted it, with all his 
family, except his daughter, the archduchess Maria 
Louisa, who was confined to her chamber by illness. 
The archduke Maximilian, with the regular garrison 
of ten thousand men, evacuated it on Napoleon's ap- 
proach ; and though the inhabitants had prepared for 
a vigorous resistance, the bombardment soon con- 
vinced them that it was hopeless. It perhaps deserves 
to be mentioned, that on learning the situation of the 
sick princess, Bonaparte instantly commanded that no 
fire should be directed toward that part of the town 



316 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

On the 10 til a capitulation was signed, and the French 
troops took possession of the city, and Napoleon once 
more established his head-quarters in the imperial 
palace of Schdnbrunn." 

The " sick princess" afterward became the bride of 
the besieging emperor. 

Charles, recruiting his army, had advanced down the 
Danube, and taken his position in order of battle op- 
posite Vienna. Napoleon was willing to accept as the 
archduke was to give another battle. But the ma- 
jestic river was swollen with a freshet, the bridges gone, 
and a thousand yards of turbulent waters between 
them. The emperor selected the channel below the 
capital, intersected by small islands, among which the 
largest was Lobau, for the perilous transit. Boats 
were prepared and anchored with chests of cannon- 
balls, planks laid, bridges erected, and, May 19 th, a 
large portion of his army was on the island, and the 
following day, passed over to meet the hostile host. 
He entered the villages of Asperne and Essling, and 
waited the movement of the Austrians. On the 21st, 
they appeared upon the rising outline of an extensive 
plain, spreading away from the French encampment. 
At four o'clock in the afternoon, the battle opened 
with an assault upon Asperne, which rapidly changed 
hands till night closed the slaughter, leaving it under 
the opposing flags of the French and the Austrian 
commanders; the latter occupying the church and 
burial-ground. The Austrians were animated with 
their partial success ; and the next morning the con- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 817 

flict was renewed with, fierj courage. The French re* 
gained possession of Asperne, and Essling remained 
"Unyielding under the protection of its batteries. At 
this crisis the fire-ships of the enemy carried away the 
bridge connecting the right bank of the river with 
Lobau. To regain connection with his reserve now 
separated from him, he must retreat to the island, 
intrench himself there, and reconstruct the demolished 
bridge. Just then the brave Lannes was struck with 
a ball, and both legs carried away. The disaster 
brought tears to Napoleon's eyes, while the poor 
marshal turned to him, his deity, for aid, dwelling till 
death upon his name. During the night, the em- 
peror's troops who survived the carnage, safely landed 
on Lobau, and the islands near. Charles claimed the 
victory ; but the undecisive advantage was too dearly 
purchased to admit of following up the blow. Napo- 
leon felt that the issue would shake the fearful power 
of his magical name, and resolved to profit by the in- 
terlude. " On the fourth of July he had at last re- 
established thorougaly his communication with the 
right bank, and arranged the means of passing to the 
left at a point where the archduke had made^ hardly 
any preparation for receiving him. The Austrians 
having rashly calculated that Asperne and Essling 
must needs be the objects of the next contest as of the 
preceding, were taken almost unawares by his appear- 
ance in another quarter. They changed their line on 
the instant and occupied a position, the centre and key 
of which was the little town of Wagram." 



318 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

Here, on the sixth of July, the final and decisive 
battle was fought. The archduke had extended his 
line over too wide a space ; and this old error enabled 
Napoleon to ruin him by his former device o/ pouring 
the full shock of his strengh on the centre. The ac- 
tion was long and bloody : at its close there remained 
twenty thousand prisoners besides all the artillery and 
baggage, in the hands of Napoleon. The archduke 
fled in great confusion as far as Znaim in Moravia. 
The imperial council perceived that further resistance 
was vain : an armistice was agreed to at Znaim ; and 
Napoleon, returning to Schonbrunn, continued oc- 
cupied with the negotiation until October. 

A. few days after he returned, he escaped narrowly 
the dagger of a young man, who rushed upon him in 
the midst of all his staff, at a grand review of the im- 
perial guard. Berthier and Rapp threw themselves upon 
the regicide, and disarmed him at the moment when his 
knife was about to enter the emperor's body. Napo- 
leon demanded what motive had actuated the assassin. 
" What injury," said he, " have I done to you ?" " To 
me, personally none," answered the youth, " but you 
are the oppressor of my country, the tyrant of the 
world ; and to have put you to death would have been 
the highest glory of a man of honor." This enthusi- 
astic youth, by name Stabbs, son of a clergyman of 
Erfurth, was — justly, no doubt — condemn'ed to death, 
and he suffered with the calmness of a martyr. 

It was during his residence at Schonbrunn that a 
quarrel, of no brief standing, with the pope, reached 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 319 

its crisis. The very language of the consular con- 
cordat sufficiently indicated tlie reluctance and pain 
with which the head of the Eomish church acquiesced 
in the arrangements devised by Bonaparte, for the 
ecclesiastical settlement of France ; and the subsequent 
course of events, but especially in Italy and in Spain, 
could hardly fail to aggravate those unpleasant feel- 
ings. In Spain and in Portugal, the resistance to 
French treachery and violence was mainly conducted 
by the priesthood ; and the pope could not contem- 
plate their exertions without sympathy and favor. In 
Italy, meantime, the French emperor had made him- 
self master of Naples, and of all the territories lying to 
the north of the papal states ; in a word, the whole of 
that peninsula was his, excepting only that narrow 
central strip which still acknowledged the temporal 
sovereignty of the Eoman pontiff This state of 
things was necessarily followed by incessant efforts on 
the part of Napoleon to procure from the pope a 
hearty acquiescence in the system of the Berlin and 
Milan decrees ; and thus far he at length prevailed. 
But when he went on to demand that his holiness 
should take an active part in the war against England, 
he was met by a steady refusal. Irritated by this op- 
position, and, perhaps, still more by his suspicion that 
the patriots of the Spanish peninsula received secret 
support from fie Vatican, Bonaparte did not hesitate 
to issue a decree in the following words: "Whereas 
the temporal sovereign of Rome has refused to make 
war against England, and the interests of the two 



320 LIFE OF NAPOLEON- BONAPARTE. 

kingdoms of Italy and Naples onglit not to be inter- 
cepted by a hostile power, and whereas the donation 
of Charlemagne, our illustrious predecessor, of the conn- 
tries which form the Holy See, was for the good of 
Christiajzity, and not for that of the enemies of our holy 
religion, we therefore declare that the duchies of Ur- 
bino, Ancona, Macerata, and Camarino be forever 
united to the kingdom of Italy." 

On the 17th of May, Napoleon issued, from Vienna, 
his final decree, declaring the temporal sovereignty of 
the pope to be wholly at an end, incorporating Eome 
with the French empire, and declaring it to be his 
second city ; settling a pension on the holy fiather in 
his spiritual capacity — and appointing a committee of 
administration for the civil government of Rome. The 
pope, on receiving the Parisian senatus-consultum, 
ratifying this imperial rescript, instantly fulminated a 
bull of excommunication against Napoleon. Shortly 
after, some unauthentic news from Germany inspired 
new hopes into the adherents of the holy father ; and, 
disturbances breaking out, Miollis, on pretense that a 
life sacred in the eyes of all Christians might be en- 
dangered, arrested the pope in his palace, at midnight, 
and forthwith dispatched him, under a strong escort, 
to Savona. 

The intelhgence of this decisive step reached Napo- 
leon soon after the battle of Wagram, and he was in- 
clined to disapprove of the conduct of Miollis as too 
precipitate. It was now, however, impossible to re- 
cede ; the pope was ordered to be conveyed across tho 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 321 

Alps to Grenoble. But his reception there was more 
reverential than Napoleon had anticipated, and he was 
soon re-conducted to Savona. 

This business would, in any other period, have been 
sufficient to set all Catholic Europe in a flame ; and 
even now Bonaparte well knew that his conduct could 
not fail to nourish and support the feelings arrayed 
against him openly in Spain and southern Germany, 
and suppressed, not extinguished, in the breasts of a 
great party of the French clergy at home. He made, 
therefore, many efforts to procure from the pope some 
formal relinquishment of his temporal claims — but 
Pius VII. remained unshaken ; and the negotiation at 
length terminated in the removal of his holiness to 
Fontainebleau, where he continued a prisoner, though 
treated personally with respect, and even magnificence, 
during more than three years. 

The treaty with Austria was at length signed at 
S'chonbrunn on the 14th of October. The emperor 
Francis purchased peace by the cession of Saltzburg, 
and a part of Upper Austria, to the Confederation of 
the Rhine ; of part of Bohemia to the king of Saxony, 
and of Cracow and western Gallicia to the same prince, 
as grand duke of Warsaw ; of part of eastern Gallicia 
to the czar; and to France herself, of Trieste, Car- 
niola, Friuli, Villach, and some part of Croatia and 
Dalmatia. By this act, Austria gave up, in all, terri- 
tory to the amount of forty-five thousand square miles, 
and a population of nearly four millions ; and Napo- 
leon, besides gratifying his vassals and allies, had cona 



822 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

pleted tlie connection of the kingdom of Italy witli hia 
Illyrian possessions, obtained tlie wliole coast of tlie 
Adriatic, and deprived Austria of lier last sea-port. 
Yet, when compared with the signal triumphs of the 
campaign of "Wagram, the terms on which Napoleon 
signed the j)eace were universally looked upon as re- 
markable for moderation ; and he claimed merit with 
the Emperor of Eussia on the score of having spared 
Austria in deference to his personal intercession. 

Bonaparte quitted Vienna on the 16th of October; 
was congratulated by the public bodies of Paris on 
the 14th of November, as the greatest of heroes, who 
never achieved victories but for the happiness of the 
world. 

On his return to Paris, Napoleon proudly proclaimed 
to his senatC; that no enemy opposed him throughout 
the continent of Europe — except only a few fugitive 
bands of Spanish rebels, and the "English leopard" in 
Portugal, whom ere long he would cause to be chased 
into the sea. " I and my house," said he, " will ever 
be found ready to sacrifice every thing, even our own 
dearest ties and feelings, to the welfare of the French 
people." 

This was the first public intimation of a measure 
which had for a considerable period occupied much of 
Napoleon's thoughts, and which, regarded at the time 
(almost universally) as the very master-stroke of his 
policy, proved in the issue no mean element of his 
ruin. 

An incident occurred upon his approach to the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 823 

capital, whicli foreshadowed sadlj the hastening event. 
At Munich he stopped and dispatched a courier to the 
empress at St. Cloud, apprising her that he should 
arrive at Fontainebleau on the 27th, and directing the 
court to proceed thither to receive him. So rapid, 
however," was his progress, that he reached Fontaine- 
bleau at ten o'clock on the morning of the 26th, and 
of course found no preparations made for his recep- 
tion. This threw him into a rage, though he could 
not have forgotten that his arrival was a day earlier 
than he had fixed, and cursing their tardiness, ordered 
a courier to gallop immediately to St. Cloud, and an- 
nounce to the empress his arrival. Fontainebleau is 
forty miles distant, and it was one o'clock before 
Josephine received the intelligence. Aware of the 
emperor's disposition, she set off hastily, with a feeling 
of dismay, fearing he might charge the consequences 
of! his own haste upon her. 

Toward evening, Josephine arrived ; Bonaparte vvaa 
writing in his library, and when an attendant told him 
the empress had come, he took no notice of the an- 
nouncement. It was the first time he had failed lo 
welcome her after absence, and not only Josephine, but 
all, marked so strange a mood. Inquiring after him, 
the empress ran to the library, threw open the doors, 
and, unheralded, stepped forward to greet him. At 
her first salutation, the emperor raised his eyes, and 
without rising from his seat, gave her a look that was 
like the touch of death. " Ah 1 so you are come, 
madam," said he. " 'Tis well ; I was just about to set 



324 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

out for St. Cloud." Josephine attempted to answer, 
but her emotions choked her, and she burst into tears. 
Was this the reception which was to requite her love, 
her fears for his safety, her efforts for his success? As ■ 
she stood sobbing there, ITapoleon's heart smote him, 
and rising, he apologized for his rudeness. "Forgive 
me," he said, tenderly embracing her — " I own I was 
wrong. Let us be friends again." Josephine was 
ready for a reconciliation, but she could not at once 
dry her tears. Ketiring to dress, they flowed afresh, 
and for several moments she freely indulged them. 
What meant his coldness, and then his returning 
favor ? Was his kindness real, or did he show it only 
to give her a false hope, as the boa is said to loosen its 
folds and look brightly in the eye of its victim, as a 
prelude to the last struggle ? 

When Josephine and the emperor again met, it was 
with mutual smiles, and apparent cordiality. Each 
seemed to have forgotten the previous misunderstand- 
ing, and mainly desirous of treating the other with 
affection. 

When at Paris, every thing appeared in its accus- 
tomed way, and Josephine was ever glad of a pretext 
which called them there, for at the palace, life was 
irksome and full of disquiet. JSTapoleon had told her 
that she stood in the way of his prosperity ; that he 
needed not only an heir, but that to render his power 
stable, he must seek an alliance with one of the great 
reigning houses of Europe ; that she lay as ever near 
his heart, but bade her ask herself the question, if it 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 325 

would be a pleasing reflection, that the great empire to 
wliose formation she had essentially contributed, was 
to crumble awaj at his death. "What a glorious 
sacrifice," he would say, "you can make, not only to 
myself but to our empire." Josephine would answer 
sometimes by tears, then by supplications, and again 
by arguments, to which even Napoleon could not re- 
ply. She would appeal by turns to his generosity, to 
his former love, and to his superstition. She would 
talk to him of that mysterious influence which had 
bound them together, and against which he might not 
rashly sin. " See there," said she to him one star-light 
evening as they sat alone at a window of the palace — 
" Bonaparte, behold that bright star ; it is mine I and 
remember, to mine, not to thine, has sovereignty been 
promised. Separate, then, our fates, and your star 
fades !" 

Nothing, however, could swerve the emperor from 
his purpose, and Josephine saw from day to day that 
her influence over him was declining, 

Bonaparte endeavored to act his part without be- 
traying his emotion, but it was in vain. The strong 
man who had smiled in the face of danger and death, 
trembled as he drew near the closing scenes of this 
strange drama. Some have represented him as ap- 
pearing to act a comedy, and pass with perfect calm- 
ness through the ordeal; but this is only an out- 
side view of the picture. It was no farce that made 
Napoleon Bonaparte weep in his chamber, while his 
whole frame shook with the emotions which were 



326 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

wildly struggling in his breast. But the iron hand ol 
destiny was upon him — destiny which had impelled 
him on in the career of glory, and still pointed to a 
brighter eminence beyond — and he could not resist it. 
He looked before him, but the abyss which was already 
yawning at his feet was covered, and like a bed of 
flowers, upon which his star shone undimmed. The 
die was cast, his resolution was irrevocably taken, and 
though, while he should carry it into action, clouds 
might gather upon his sky, they would roll away, 
leaving his path the clearer and brighter, in contrast 
with a transient eclipse. 

It was the last day of November, that he formally 
announced his purpose to Josephine. He had previ- 
ously urged her to consent to the divorce, but had 
never before positively told her that she must cease to 
be his wife. Upon this day, dinner had been served 
as usual, to which the emperor and empress sat down. 
Josephine had been weeping all the morning, and to 
conceal the tears which were still falling, she appeared 
at the dinner-table, wearing a head-dress which com- 
pletely shaded the upper part of her face. The din- 
ner was one merely of form. The viands were 
brought on and removed, but neither Josephine nor 
Bonaparte tasted the luxuries or uttered a word. 
Once or twice their eyes met, but were instantly 
averted, each fearing to read the look which revealed 
the spirit's struggle. Josephine saw that her sun-light 
had passed away, and felt that the storm would quick- 
ly spend its wrath upon her. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 327 

The dinner ceremony concluded, the emperor rose, 
and Josephine followed him mechanically into the ad- 
joining saloon. Napoleon ordered all the attendants 
to retire, and for a few moments they were alone, and 
both were silent. Josephine instinctively apprehended 
her fate, but as she watched the changing expression 
of Bonaparte's countenance, and read through these 
the struggles of his soul, a single ray of hope darted 
athwart the gloom. Approaching her with trembling 
steps, the emperor gazed at her for a moment, then 
took her hand and laid it upon his heart, as he said — 
"Josephine! my good Josephine, you know how I 
have loved you ; it is to you, to you alone, that I owe 
the few moments of happiness I have known in the 
world. Josephine, my destiny is more powerful than 
my will ; my dearest affections must yield to the in- 
terests of France." " Say no more," said the empress ; 
" I expected this ; I understand and feel for you, but 
the stroke is not the less mortal." Josephine stopped ; 
she tried to say more, but the appalling vision of her 
doom choked her utterance. She endeavored to com- 
mand her feelings but they were too strong to be re- 
strained, and sobbing out, " Oh no, you can not surely 
doitl you would not kill me?" she sunk upon the 
floor, overcome with the weight of her calamity. Na- 
poleon, alarmed for her safety, threw open the doors 
of the saloon and called for help. The court phy- 
sician was instantly summoned, and committing the 
hapless empress to his care, the author of her misery 
shut himself up in his cabinet, with feelings known 



328 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

only to Him, whose Omniscient eye " searches the hearts 
of the children of men." 

Josephine remained in her swoon for three hours. 
Again and again, the emperor came to inquire after 
her, and would hang over her couch with an expres- 
sion of the deepest anxiety. Corvisart, the physician, 
and Hortense, watched eagerly for tokens of returning 
animation ; but when the empress opened her eyes 
again in consciousness, it was with a look so full of 
sadness, that those who stood around, almost wished 
that she could then bury her sorrows in the forgetful- 
ness of death. 

"I can not describe," she afterward writes, "the 
horror of my condition during that night I Even the 
interest which he affected to take in my sufferings, 
seemed to me additional cruelty. Oh, mon Dieu! 
how justly had I reason to dread becoming an em- 
press !" When she recovered, she made no effort to 
change Napoleon's resolution, but simply expressed to 
him her acquiescence. A day or two afterward she 
wrote the following letter to the emperor, which, as it 
illustrates her peculiar feelings in relation to this event, 
we have inserted : 

"My presentiments are realized. You have pro- 
nounced the word which separates us : the rest is only 
a formality. Such is the reward— -I will not say of so 
many sacrifices (they were sweet, because made for 
you) — ^but of an attachment unbounded on my part, 
and of the most solemn oaths on yours. But the state, 
whose interests you put forward as a motive, will, it ia 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 829 

said, indemnify me, by justifying you! These inter- 
ests, however, upon which you feign to immolate me, 
are but a pretext ; your ill-dissembled ambition, as it 
has been, so it will ever continue, the guide of your 
life — a guide which has led you to victories and to a 
throne, and which now urges you to disasters and to 
ruin. 

" You speak of an alliance to contract — of an heir to 
be given to your empire — of a dynasty to be founded ! 
But with whom do you contract that alliance ? With 
the natural enemy of France — ^that insidious house of 
Austria — which detests our country from feeling, sys- 
tem, and necessity. Do you suppose that the hatred, 
so many proofs of which have been manifested, es- 
pecially during the last fifty years, has not been trans- 
ferred from the kingdom to the empire ; and that the 
descendants of Maria Theresa, that able sovereign, 
who purchased from Madam Pompadour the fatal 
treaty of 1756, mentioned by yourself only with hor- 
ror ; think you, I ask, that her posterity, while they 
inherit her power, are not animated also by her spirit ? 
I do nothing more than repeat what I have heard from 
you a thousand times ; but then your ambition limited 
itself to humbling a power which now you propose to 
elevate. Believe me, so long as you shall be master 
of Europe, Austria will be submissive to you ; but 
never know reverse I 

" As to the want of an heir, must a mother appear 
to you prejudiced in speaking of a son ? Can I — ought 
T to be silent respecting him who constitutes my whole 



830 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

jo J, and on whom once centered all your hopes ? The 
adoption of Eugene was, then, a political falsehood ? 
But there is one reality, at least ; the talents and vir- 
tues of my Eugene are no illusion. How many times 
have you pronounced their eulogium ! What do I say ? 
Have you not deemed them worthy the possession of a 
throne as a recompense, and often said they deserved 
more? Alas! France has repeated the same; but 
what to you are the wishes of France ? 

"I do not here speak of the person destined to suc- 
ceed me, nor do you expect that I should mention her. 
Whatever I might say on the subject would be liable 
to suspicion. But one thing you will never suspect — • 
the vow which I form for your happiness. May that 
felicity at least recompense me for my sorrows. Ah I 
great it will be if proportionate to them !" 

The empress was not a woman that yielded to 
despair, though to appear cheerful, or even calm, at 
this time, cost her a struggle that shook the throne of 
reason. But she was empress still, and while her 
moments of solitude were consumed in weeping and 
unavailing regret, she lost none of her dignity or ease 
when subjected to the curious gaze of the ofi&cers of 
the court, or the ladies who had a more immediate ac- 
cess to her person. She even went to Paris, and pre- 
sided at some of the splendid fetes given in honor of 
Napoleon's late victories ; but in all her movements, 
no one detected a step less light, an air less gay, a mien 
less commanding, than had distinguished her in tha 
palmiest days of her imperial happiness. Hortense 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 331 

was at Fontainebleau wlien Napoleon made his an- 
nouncement to the empress, and Eugene left Italy and 
hastened to cheer his mother by his presence, as soon 
as the first tidings of her calamity reached him. Both 
of her children desired immediately to withdraw from 
further association with Napoleon, Eugene tendered 
his resignation as viceroy of Italy, and asked to be ex- 
cused from future service. Said he, " The son of her 
who is no longer empress, can not remain viceroy. I 
will follow my mother into her retreat. She must now 
find her consolation in her children." Napoleon was 
much affected at this declaration, and urged Eugene 
not to relinquish hastily his honors. He told him that 
it was necessity, and not inclination, which urged the 
sacrifice of Josephine ; that he still loved her, and lav- 
ished the same affections upon her children as before. 
'* Should you leave me," said he, " and should I have 
a son, who would watch over the child when I am ab- 
sent ? If I die, who wiU prove to him a father ? who 
will bring him up? who is to make a man of him?" 
Josephine also heroically pleaded Napoleon's request. 
"The emperor," said she to Eugene, *'is your bene- 
factor, your more than father, to whom you are in- 
debted for every thing, and, therefore, owe a boundless 
obedience." History hardly shows a stronger instance 
of self-denying devotion than that which the empress 
exhibited during the whole of these scenes. 

That " fatal day" was not to be averted. It came, 
and notwithstanding her previous fortitude, the blow 
fell with a crushing 'veight upon her soul. A stupor, 



332 LIFE OF NAPOLEOlSr BONAPARTE. 

as thougli death, were fastening his arrow in her heart, 
came over her. She was the gay and lovely Josephine 
no longer. She lost the self-control which she had 
with so much conflict gained, and was again a weak, 
broken-hearted woman, helpless and comfortless; a 
vine reaching forth in vain its tendrils for the support 
whence it was rudely torn. 

The 15th of December had been announced as the 
day for the intended separation, Napoleon had caused ; 
to assemble at the Tuilleries the diiferent members of 
his own family, the Arch-chancellor of France, and all 
the high of&cers of state who composed the imperial 
council. It was a magnificent assembly, but each 
countenance wore a shade of gloom, as if some terrible 
blow were impending over the dearest prospects of 
every heart. Napoleon first addressed them and told 
them the object of his calling them together. " The 
political interests of my monarchy," said he, " the 
wishes of my people, which have constantly guided 
my actions, require that I should leave behind me, to 
heirs of my love for my people, the throne on which 
Providence has placed me. For many years I have 
lost all hopes of having children by my beloved spouse 
the Empress Josephine : this it is which induces me to 
sacrifice the sweetest affections of my heart, to con- 
sider only the good of my subjects and desire a disso- 
lution of our marriage. Arrived at the age of forty 
years, I may indulge a reasonable hope of living long 
enough to rear, in the spirit of my own thoughts and 
disposition, the children with which it may please 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 333 

Providence to bless me. God knows what such a de- 
termination has cost my heart I but there is no sacri- 
fice which is above my courage when it is proved to 
be for the best interests of France. Far from having 
any cause of complaint, I have nothing to say but in 
praise of the attachment and tenderness of my beloved 
wife. She has embellished fifteen years of my life — 
the remembrance of them will be forever engraven on 
my heart; she was crowned by my hand: she shall 
retain always that rank and the title of empress ; but, 
above all, let her never doubt my feelings, or regard 
me but as her best and dearest friend." 

The sweet but faltering tones of Josephine's voice 
struck a chord of sympathy in every heart, as she thus, 
with great dignity, replied — " I respond to all the sen- 
timents of the emperor, in consenting to the dissolution 
of a marriage, whicb henceforth is an obstacle to the 
happiness of France, by depriving it of the blessing of 
being one day governed by the descendants of that 
great man, evidently raised up by Providence to efface 
the evils of a terrible revolution, and restore the altar, 
the throne, and social order. But his marriage will in 
no respect cbange the sentiments of my heart; the 
emperor will ever find in me his truest friend. I know 
what ibis act, commanded by policy and exalted inter- 
ests, has cost his heart ; but we both glory in the sacri- 
fices which we make to the good of the country. I 
feel elevated in giving the greatest pi oof of attachment 
and devotion that was ever given upon earth." When 
she had finished, the empress was assisted out of the 



834 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

apartment, but tlie exercises of the day, from which 
she was drinking such draughts of bitterness, were not 
yet brought to a close. Again had the imperial family 
and chief nobles of the realm assembled, all in grand 
costume, to witness the final consummation. A decree 
of the Senate had been obtained, proclaiming the 
divorce, and all that was now necessary, was that it 
receive the signatures and seals of the parties "to be 
separated. Napoleon wore a hat whose sweeping 
plumes mostly concealed his face, but an observer 
could still read in his countenance traces of deep emo- 
tion. He stood with his arms crossed upon his breast 
motionless and speechless. A writing apparatus of 
gold lay upon a small table in the midst of the apart- 
ment, and before it an arm-chair was placed^ waiting 
the entrance of the empress. The door opened and 
Josephine, leaning on the arm of Hortense, came slowly 
forward. For a moment she gave an involuntary shud- 
der, and paused while her lustrous eye ran over the 
face of every one present, as though she had now for 
the first time gained a full apprehension of her doom. 

It was, however, but for a moment, and proceeding 
forward she seated herself in the chair at the table, 
and listened to the decree of the council which com- 
pleted the separation between herself and the object 
of her warmest affections. The decree was as fol^^ 
lows : 

" Art. I. The marriage contracted between the Em- 
peror Napoleon and the Empress Josephine, is dis- 
solved. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 835 

" Art. II. The Empress Josephine shall preserve the 
title and rank of Empress Queen Crowned. 

"Art. III. Her allowance is fixed at an annual pay- 
ment out of the public treasury. 

" Art. IV. Whatever provision the emperor shall 
make in favor of the Empress Josephine out of the 
funds belonging to the civil list, shall be obligatory 
upon his successors. 

"Art. Y. The present Senatus-consultum shall be 
transmitted by a message to her imperial and royal 
majesty." 

Josephine listened to this decree, but the warm tears 
fell like rain from her quivering lids. Eising from hei 
chair, she pronounced the oath of acceptance with a 
tremulous voice, and then overcome with emotion, 
sank again into her seat. Count Regnaud de St. Jean 
d'Angely placed the pen in her hand, with which she 
signed the fatal decree. The deed was done, but oh I 
with what a heaving heart did that martyr lay down 
the pen, and look up to catch one glance of love from 
the stern countenance, which, pale and motionless as 
that of a statue, was turned full upon her. With one 
convulsive sob she rose, and leaning again ujDon the 
arm of Hortense, left the apartment no longer the wife 
of Bonaparte. 

Eugene, who had been an agonized spectator of the 
whole scene, followed her closely, but his emotions 
were too strong for his sensitive nature to endure. 
He had hardly left the saloon before lie fainted and 
fell, completely overcome by his anguish. 



830 lilFlO OK NAI'OMCON IJONAl'AUTK. 

JosephiiiQ shut hersolf up in hor apartraont, where 
the sorrow of her soul could be unsoeii by human eye. 
She had nerved herself for tlje issue, had for days been 
sleeliiifi; lior heart to comjjosuro, but when the blow 
foil, hIu; bowed like a reed before the tempest. It wan 
iu vain that she assumed tranquillity : the tide of feel- 
ing swept its barriers. At niglit she scjught a last in- 
terview with Napoleon. Ue had retired to rest when, 
with eyes swollen and red from weeping, Josephine 
entered the apartmoiiL She thi-ew ojxmi the door bu*. 
stopped, as she saw the emperor, doubtful wlietlier to 
advance or retire. A throng of emotions — delicacy, 
love — the consciousness that she had no longer any 
right there, and an unwillingness to leave without an 
adieu,* struggled in hor bro;i,Ml.. Mapoloon, dismissing 
his servant in waiting, rose and clasped the Empress 
in his arms, and for a few moments they were locked 
in eaeli other's embrace, silently mingling their tears 
together. Josephine remained with him an hour, and 
thtwi piirtod IVom the man who had won and broken 
her heart. Her sobs told what a weight of sorrow 
still rested upon hor spirit as she left the apartment, 
l)ul, tho bittoi'iu'SH of death had pawed. 

Aiul another trial was in store for her. The next 
morning she was to lonvo tlu^ 'IViilleries, and bid adieu 
to scenes sacred to tho memory of happiest years. 
At eleven o'clock an oifioor of the guard entered her 
room, and told her that he had orders to conduct her 
to Malmaison. Silently she prepared to obey the sum- 
mons, but paused to weep again, when she thought of 



lAl'K OK W A I'OhlCON HON AI'A ItTIt;. QUI 

what hIio liiul sacriflood and what flho was to loavo, 
'1\> add to Iicr .MJi(hi()SH, the vvlmlc, lioiiHdhoM, who wdi'o 
tondcirly ull.iiflicd to her, asMtunhKul lo«.'(i|,ht)r on the 
HiaiiH and in l\\v. voHtibulo tlirough wliicli hImi whh I,o 
|)aHa, anxiouH to caUsh oiio hist look ut their uiartyr 
ini.strcHM, " who earried with her into exih) tho henrlM 
ol'all that liad enjoyed the ha|>i)inc!.sH of aeee.sH to her 
j)reHeneo." TIio cxpreHHioiirt of tlieir griel'nH they met 
her eaiM, were too nincJi loi- iJie liciiit oC tJoNephine, 
She would have Htopped juid taiceii them cMc-h by the 
hand, but Hlui knew il" hIic- had hcwitaUMl now, a de- 
lirium ofgi-iel* would lay lu^r a lielpleHM vielim a,t their 
lecit. She jeantid nj)on one ol" her ladieH, and moved 
on wilJi moiiiiifiil .slrj), moie trcmidoUMly and wc'ai'ily 
tluui tlu; uniortuuati^, but laiLhlid Keanliai iimJm, had 
i.iod the floor oC the /^nilloline, A earriapo Htood at 
ilie f^aten, an ollieer aHHintetl her up the ntepn, and 
paiiHinp^ to take a I'aniwell gaze at the HeencM of \)ml 
greatnenH and depailed liappincHH, nhe vailecl a Died 
whoHe twoloM exprcHnion ol' reHignution and .soiwow 
made it inthi.seribably touching and lovely ; and wa« 
borne away Ibreverlrom the paiaee eonncierahtd by Imu* 
preHenec, to tho ern|)ire of virtuci and aU'eetion. 

JoBephine rcitiirnciil to Malmaiwon, the mauHion 
which tw(;lv<i years before she (sntered aH iJie bride of 
Nii,[)ol<i(jn, and whore she liad i)asMed tiu5 hn,p])ie,st 
hours ol' life, now henrtbrok(!ri a,!id <leH(jlat(5. She 
Htruggled vainly to calm the agitatiofi ol' her uno/lend* 
ing spirit, l,li;i,t Coreed the. t(;ar'H like r;i,in I'lom lutr 
HWoll(!n i'yc.H, and to hide tlu5 a,'/ony wriU,e,n in iin- 

15 



338 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

mistakable lines upon laer meek and mournful face. 
Though past middle age, she was still youthful in ap- 
pearance, and seemed the very angel of sorrow, smil- 
ing through the grief and gloom of her great calamity ; 
the more distressed, because others were sad on her 
account. Every object that she looked upon reminded 
her of the varied past, her present humiliation, and a 
joyless future. Her favorite walks were no more 
taken for refreshment or pleasure, but became the 
hours of weeping, while every apartment of that villa, 
chosen and embellished by her taste, presented to her 
eye some trace of the man whose ambition crushed her, 
or gave back to her imagination an echo of his familiar 
voice. It was not simply that her divorce was un- 
just, and her pride wounded by so rudely taking from 
her brow a crown she had not sought, but her affec- 
tions were torn from their object and bleeding — she 
was spurned from a heart that had won her own, and 
loved deeply in turn — and all to gratify an insatiate 
thirst for power and permanent fame. None but those 
who have striven to conceal the throes of anguish 
which almost brought tears of blood, can sympathize 
with this uncomplaining sufferer during the months 
that succeeded her separation from Napoleon. 



CHAPTER YII. 

The choice of a new empress. — Josephine's experience. — Napoleon's 
power shaken. — The birth of a prince. — Propositions of peace with 
England. — War with Russia. — His progress to Dresden. — He reaches 
Dantzic. — The Grand Army cross the Niemen. — The Poles hail the 
presence of the emperor witli hope. — The Russian method of destruc- 
tion to the enemy. — Napoleon enters Moscow. — He occupies the 
Kremlin.-^ — Letter to Alexander. — Conflagration of Moscow. — The 
retreat. — The march to Smolensk. — Conspiracy in Paris. — Marshal 
Ney. — His supposed death. — His rescue. — The wasting army reach 
the Beresina. — The tragical crossing of the river Wilna. — Napo- 
leon returns to Paris. — Reaches the palace at night. — The rear-guard 
of the Grand Army. 

The choice of a new Emjjress of France lay mamlj 
between Austria and Russia. Alexander desired the 
alliance because he anticipated conditions which would 
advance his designs against the jestoration of Poland, 
and especially those upon Constantinople. After con- 
sulting his Privy Council, a majority of whom favored 
the Austrian princess, Napoleon opened negotiations 
with Francis. Berthier, in behalf of his sovereign, re- 
ceived her hand at Vienna, and the marriage was cele- 
brated, March 10, 1810, in that capital, with great 
splendor. The bride commenced her journey to 
France, amid the exultation of the people. Napoleon 
hastened to take her by surprise. Disregarding the 
order of arrangements, he rode* toward Soissons, and 



340 LIFE OF JSAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

as her carriage approaclicd, leaving his own, sprang 
into the presence of Maria Louisa. Surprised and 
pleased at his enthusiasm, she said as soon as the 
excitement passed: "Your Majesty's pictures have 
not done you justice." Napoleon was forty years of 
age, the empress eighteen — both fine-looking, and in 
perfect health. 

The following distich, which a burgomaster of Hol- 
land placed on a triumphal arch erected to JSTapoleon, 
is well known : 

" II a'a pas fait une sottise 
Ea epousant Marie-Louise."* 

Napoleon had no sooner read this singular inscrip- 
idon, than he sent for the burgomaster. " Mr. Mayor," 
iSaid he, " you cultivate the French muses here !" 
" Sire, I compose a little." " Ah ! it 's you, then I 
Do you take snuff?" added he, on presenting him a 
snuff-box enriched with diamonds. "Yes, sire; but 
I — " '< Take it, take it — ^box and all ! And 

" Quand vous prendrez une prise, 
Rappelez-vous Marie-Louise.''f 

They spent the evening at the Chateau of Com- 
peigne, where it was expected they would first meet, 
and April 1st, the marriage which was virtually con- 
summated according to Austrian statutes, was formally 
and civilly celebrated at St. Cloud. The following 
day the grand entry was made into Paris. He acted 
the part of a devoted lover, but could not and did not 
forget Josephine. He endeavored in vain to induce 
Maria Louisa to become acquainted with the former 
wife of Napoleon — still the queen of his heart. 

* " He has not done a foolish thing 

In marrying Marie-Louise." 
f " "When you shall take a pinch of snuff 

Remember Marie-Louise." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 841 

Malmaison liad fallen mucli into decay during the 
years of change in the empire. To restore the de- 
parted grandeur and beauty was Josephine's new em- 
ployment, which was a double source of delight, in 
furnishing entertainment to herself, and a means of 
benevolence in the labors of the poor peasantry. 
Bonaparte gave her a million of francs, or forty -one 
thousand pounds sterling, on her retirement, as a part 
of her allowance, which she devoted entirely to this 
object. Soon the wilderness of decay " blossomed as 
the rose;" the waters sparkled and murmured along 
their channels, and slumbered in their boundaries 
fringed with foliage — the sunny slopes were gay with 
flowers, and the wide fields alive with the laborers, 
who were grateful for toil, if it purchased bread. In 
the centre of this miniature kingdom, the ex-empress 
lived more secluded than before, and consequently 
more in unison with her taste. There were less parade, 
and fewer guests, but more freedom and greater inti- 
macy of friendship. 

Yet Josephine felt not a thrill of joy amid all this 
change, unless upon receiving words of love from Na- 
noleon, or at the gladness of others. The words of in- 
spiration were deeply her experience : " Every heart 
knows its own bitterness r (jDhere is nothing more sad 
in life's changes, than the suffering of the innocent 
for the guilty ; the unuttered grief of a bosom another 
has robbed of hope — the slow death of one who has a 
wounded spirit^ But such are the woes that make the 
pastime of half the world. The millionaire rides in a 
gilded chariot bought with the gains that made tears 
fall like rain — ^the man with a little brief authority 
walks unmoved upon the prostrate form of another 
whom he fears or hates — and in a thousand homes, 



342 LIFE OF KAPOLEON" BONAPAETE. 

woman is a secluded martyr to the vice and caprice of 
a heartless ruffian. 

To Josephine, this view of earth, after the completed 
work of desolation, which banislied her from St. Cloud, 
became naturally the habitual one, as expressed in a 
letter to Bonaparte : 

"Sire — I received, this morning, the welcome note 
which was written on the eve of your departure for 
St. Cloud, and hasten to reply to its tender and affec- 
tionate contents. These, indeed, do not in themselves 
surprise me; but only as being received so early as 
fifteen days after my establishment here ; so perfectly 
assured was I that your attachment would search out 
the means of consoling me under a separation neces- 
sary to the tranquillity of both. The thought that 
your care follows me into my retreat renders it almost 
agreeable. 

" After having known all the sweets of a love that 
is shared, and all the suifering of one that is so no 
longer; after having exhausted all the pleasures that 
supreme power can confer, and the happiness of be- 
holding the man whom I loved, enthusiastically ad- 
mired, is there aught else, save repose, to be desired ? 
What illusions can now remain for me? All such 
vanished when it became necessary to renounce you. 
Thus, the only ties which yet bind me to life are my 
sentiments for you, attachment for my children, the 
possibility of being able still to do some good, and 
above all, the assurance that you are happy. Do not, 
then, condole with me on my being here, distant from 
a court which you appear to think I regret. Sur- 
rounded by those who are attached to me, free to fol- 
^low my taste for the arts, I find myself better at Na- 
varre than anywhere else ; for I enjoy more completely 
the society of the former, and form a thousand projects 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 343 

which may prove useful to the latter, and will embel- 
lish the scenes I owe to your bounty. There is much 
to be done here, for all around are discovered the 
traces of destruction ; these I would effiice, that there 
may exist, no memorial of those horrible inflictions 
which your genius has taught the nation almost to 
forgei- In repairing whatever these rujSians of revo- 
lution labored to annihilate, I shall diffuse comfort 
around me; and the benedictions of the poor will 
afford me infinitely more pleasure than the feigned 
adulations of courtiers. 

" I have already told you what I think of the func- 
tionaries in this department, but have not spoken 
sufficiently ■ of the respectable bishop (M. Bourlier). 
Every day I learn some new trait, which causes me 
still more highly to esteem the man who unites the 
most enlightend benevolence with the most amiable 
dispositions. He shall be intrusted with distributing 
my alms-deeds in Evreux ; and as he visits the indi- 
gent himself, I shall be assured that my charities are 
properly bestowed. 

"I can not sufficiently thank you, sire, for the 
liberty you have permitted me of choosing the mem- 
bers of my household, all of whom contribute to the 
pleasure of a delightful society. One circumstance 
alone gives me pain, namely, the etiquette of costume, 
which becomes a little tiresome in the country. You 
fear that there may be something wanting to the rank 
I have preserved, should a slight infraction be allowed 
in the toilet of these gentlemen ; but I believe you are 
wrong in thinking they would, for one minute, forget 
the respect due to the woman who was your compan- 
ion. Their respect for yourself, joined to the sincere 
attachment they bear to me (which I can not doubt), 
secures me against the danger of being obliged to re- 



844 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

call what it is your wish they should remember. My 
most honorable title is derived, not from having been 
crowned, but assuredly from having been chosen by 
you — none other is of value — that alone suffices for 
my immortality. 

" I expect Eugene. I doubly long to see him ; for 
he will doubtless bring me a new pledge of your re- 
membrance ; and I can question him at my ease of a 
thousand things concerning which I desire to be in- 
formed, but can not inquire of you ; things, too, of 
which you ought still less to speak to me. My 
daughter will come also, but later, her health not per- 
mitting her to travel at this season. I beseech you, 
sire, to recommend that she take care of herself; and 
insist, since I am to remain here, that she do every thing 
possible to spare me the insupportable anxiety I feel 
under any increase of her ill health. The weakness 
in her chest alarms me beyond all expression. I de- 
sire Corvisart to write me his opinion without re- 
serve. 

" My circle is at this time somewhat more numer- 
ous than usual, there being several visitors, besides 
many of the inhabitants of Bvreux and the environs, 
whom I see of course. I am pleased with their man- 
ners, and with their admiration of you, a particular in 
which, as you know, I am not easily satisfied ; in short, 
I find myself perfectly at home in the midst of my 
forest, and entreat you, sire, no longer to fancy to 
yourself that there is no living at a distance from 
court. Besides you, there is nothing there I regret, 
since I shall have my children with me soon, and 
already enjoy the society of the small number of 
friends who remained faithful to me. Do not forget 
your friend ; tell her sometimes that you preserve for 
her an attachment which constitutes the felicity of her 



LIFE CF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 845 

life ; often repeat to her that you are happy, and be 
assured that for her the future will thus be peaceful, as 
the past has been stormy — and often sad." 

The too-devoted Josephine appeared no more upon 
the public arena ; in silence and seclusion she suffered 
a few years, and died broken-hearted. 

It was not this sacrifice alone that presaged Napo- 
leon's fall ; but passing by France and Eussia, he had 
taken a daughter of the House of Hapsburg — a 
tyrannical, faithless race. In this, while securing the 
favor of the nobility in the royal scheme, he swept 
away the last claim to sincerity in his conflicts for the 
people against despotism. The niece of Maria An- 
toinette, whose blood had scarcely faded from the 
guillotine, was empress of France. 

Napoleon — who had overthrown the old feudal 
system, and revolutionized Europe prepared for the 
stupendous changes by the corrupt monarchies of the 
past — failed to redeem his pledge of regeneration and 
reconstruction of half a continent laid at his feet. 
" He married the fresh, the genial, the immortal, the 
glorious, the newly-born future, which all coming 
ages will claim, to the corrupt, and effete, and putrid 
corpse of the dark ages." 

And the shock he had given to his sovereignty, by 
the imprisonment of the Eoman Pontiff, was more 
widely felt than was apparent. These events were 
followed by another blow upon the base of the impe- 
rial throne — startling to the callous and iron-hearted 
monarch. King Louis disregarded the rule of Napo- 
leon, which was, to make " the first object of his care 
the emperor, the second, France, and the third, Hol« 
land," and was pliant in the enforcement of the Berlin 
and Milan decrees, by which he grew in popularity 
with the people. He was rebuked by Napoleon, and 

15* 



346 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

hating the restraint upon his reign, suddenly abdi- 
cated his throne, and retired with disgust into private 
life, at Gratz in Styria. Holland was immediately an- 
nexed to the empire of France. The Peninsular war 
continued ; the people were unsubdued, except by the 
force of arms ; and Joseph was still the weary, power- 
less representative of a king. Amid these causes of 
irritation, which pointed ominously to the future, Na- 
poleon's heart beat proudly with the fruition of cher- 
ished hope. 

On the 20th of March, 1811, his wishes were 
crowned by the birth of a son. The birth was a diffi- 
cult one, and the nerves of the medical attendant were 
shaken. " She is but a woman," said the emperor, 
who was present, " treat her as you would a hourgeoise 
of the Rue St. DenisJ^ The accoucher at a subsequent 
moment withdrew Napoleon from the couch, and de- 
manded whether, in case one life must be sacrificed, 
he should save the mother's or the child's. "The 
mother's," he answered: " it is her right !" At length 
the child appeared, but without any sign of life. 
After the lapse of some minutes a feeble cry was 
heard, and Napoleon entering the antechamber in 
which the high functionaries of the state were assem- 
bled, announced the event in these words : " It is a 
king of Eome !" 

The booming of cannon announced in the capital 
the advent of an heir to the crown of Napoleon ; and 
the tidings spread over the realm, accompanied with 
all the demonstrations of enthusiasm which had be- 
fore attended the birth of a dauphin. The Bourbons 
and their friends, heard in the shouts of joy, the knell 
of their hopes. Murat had anticipated an independ- 
ent sovereignty for his family in Naples ; the king 
of Prussia was chafins; against the humblinsr condi- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 347 

tions of peace, ready to avenge tlie rifled tomb of 
Frederic, even upon tlie husband of an Austrian 
princess ; and Eussia was preparing again for war. 
When Alexander heard of the marriage with Maria 
Louisa, he remarked, "■ Then the next thing will be 
to drive us back into our forests." The " Continental 
System," as the blockade-policy was called, increased 
the antagonism of Russia, which, jealousy of Napoleon's 
greatness, and his refusal to give desired pledges fav- 
oring the plans of extending power, had nourished. 
And the union with the House of Austria was signifi- 
cant of resources for any service his absolute will 
might require. Sweden at this period, to please the 
emperor, and enthrone a man she believed fit to be 
a king, placed Bernadotte on the throne. But with 
the appearance of fidelity to the monarch who raised 
him from obscurity to fame, he soon betrayed Napo- 
leon, and became his open enemy. 

Thus environed with difficulties, the Emperor of 
France once more opened negotiations with England 
for peace. He desired it, doubtless ; he would avoid 
the hazard attending another general conflict, and he 
preferred to develop the elements of prosperity and 
glory in France. • The decided, stern refusal of En- 
gland to recognize Joseph King of Spain, closed the 
correspondence, and sounded afresh the tocsin of war. 
Eussia was plied with English influence, and Alexan- 
der could not long resist the pressure from abroad 
and his nobles at home, added to his own embarrassed 
schemes of empire. 

In April, 1812, Eussia declared war. In doing so, 
the treaty of Tilsit was broken with faithless contempt 
of the most sacred obligations, and the signal of an- 
other combined effort to crush Napoleon was thrown 
out upon the vast horizon of the empire of the nortk, 



548 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The French emperor had issued conscriptions ; and 
from Switzerland, Italy, Bavaria, and the vine-clad 
hills of France, the battalions came pouring into the 
ranks of the grand army, till half a million of men 
were ready to march into the fearful wastes of Eussia, 
to furnish the world a tragedy of war, never before or 
since recorded in history. 

The prospective campaign was too daring and peril- 
ous not to awaken fears in heroic minds. Talleyrand 
opposed it ; Fouche drew up a memorial against it, 
and called the emperor's attention to the important 
crisis. Kapoleon replied, " It is no crisis at all, but a 
mere war of politics. Spain falls whenever I have 
destroyed the English influence at St. Petersburg. 
Did not you yourself once tell me that the word impos- 
sible is not French ?" It deserves to be mentioned that 
neither this statesman nor any of his compeers, ever 
even alluded to the injustice of making war on Eussia 
for the mere gratification of ambition. Their argu- 
ments were all drawn from the extent of Alexander's 
resources — ^his four hundred thousand regulars, and 
his fifty thousand Cossacks, already known to be in 
arms, and the enormous population on which he had 
the means of drawing for recruits; the enthusiastic 
national feeling of the Muscovites ; the distance of 
their country ; the severity of their climate ; the op- 
portimity which such a war would afford to England 
of urging her successes in Spain ; and the chance of 
Germany rising in insurrection in ^ case of any re- 
verses ! 

Cardinal Fesch, who grieved at the arrest of the 
Pope, looked with alarm on this expedition, as an in- 
sane measure to secure the vengeance of Heaven He 
entreated Napoleon not " to provoke at once the wrath 
of man and the fury of the elements." The emperor 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 849 

drew the cardinal to the window, and pointing up- 
ward, exclaimed "Do you see yonder star?" "No, 
sire," replied the cardinal. "But I see it," answered 
Napoleon ; and abruptly dismissed him. 

May 9th, Bonaparte left Paris with the empress, and 
with triumphal splendor, followed by the shouts of the 
people, reached Dresden, the capital of Saxony. 

Here he gathered about him the kings of Prussia, 
Naples, Wirtemberg, and Westphalia ; and he sat in 
the palace of another, more like the monarch among 
courtiers, than the royal general on his way to fresh 
•and wasting conflicts with the lauded sovereign of the 
earth's proudest realms. The population of the sur- 
rounding country thronged the streets, and surged 
like waves of the sea, against the palace walls, to see the 
man before whose greatness the rulers of the world 
were dwarfed to common men. Napoleon was confi- 
dent of success ; the word destiny rang in the cham- 
bers of thought like a trumpet-call to the conquest of 
Europe. 

May 28th, leaving Dresden, and parting with Maria 
Louisa at Prague, he pressed on to Dantzic, which was 
governed by General Eapp, a favorite with Napoleon. 
This officer, Murat, and Berthier, confessed to the em- 
peror their reluctance to engage in the perilous uncer- 
tainty of the Eussian campaign. 

June 22d Napoleon issued the following bulletin : 

" Soldiers ! Eussia is dragged on by her fate : her 
destiny must be accomplished. Let us march : let us 
cross the Niemen : let us carry war into her territories. 
Our second campaign of Poland will be as glorious as 
our first : but our second peace shall carry with it its 
own guaranty : it shall put an end forever to that 
haughty influence which Eussia has exercised for fifty 
years on the affairs of Europe." The address, ia 



350 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

which, the czar announced the terminations of his ne- 
gotiations, invoked the aid of Almighty Providence as 
" the witness and the defender of the true cause ;" 
and concluded in these words — " Soldiers, you fight 
for your religion, your liberty, and your native land. 
Your emperor is among you ; and God is the enemy 
of the aggressor." 

From Dantzic, on the 11th of June, Napoleon ad- 
vanced to Konigsberg, where immense stores were 
collected for the long march into Eussian forests, and 
over desert wastes. The divisions of the grand army 
command^ by Davoust, Oudinot, Ney, Eugene, 
Poinatowski, St. Cyr, Eegnier, Jerome, Victor, Mac- 
donald, Augereau, Murat, and Schwartzenberg. Mar- 
shals Mortier, Lefebre, and Bessieres, led the imperial 
guard. This splendid cavalcade, which Napoleon 
reviewed on the battle plain of Friedland, with all the 
equipments of siege and difficult marches, reached, 
the last of June, the banks of the rushing ISTiemen, be- 
neath the dark shadow of the silent wilderness. 

It "was on the 2-4th, that the host began to cross, in 
three great caravans at as many different points, the 
bridges they had built ; the river reflecting the glitter- 
ing weapons and nodding plumes, as for two days and 
nights they moved forward under the eye of Napo- 
leon. While reconnoitering the banks at Kowno, his 
horse stumbled and fell. " A bad omen — a Eoman 
would return," he exclaimed. 

Over the plains of Lithuania, the battalions ad- 
vanced without opposition from the enemy, towards 
Wilna, the capital of Eussian Poland ; it was evacu- 
ated at their approach. Here Napoleon rested on the 
28th of June; but the magazines which he anticipated 
had been consumed — a prelude to the greater conflag- 
ration, whose flames would prove the funeral-torch of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 351 

the most magnificent array of armed men tliat eveT 
left the sunny valleys of France. 

The brave Poles rallied around the emperor, and 
petitioned him to restore to them their nationality, 
furnishing as an expression of confidence and hope, 
eighty-five thousand troops to join the desperate cam- 
paign against their gigantic and cruel foe. But Na- 
poleon's refusal to meet the demand of Eussia, " that 
the kingdom of Poland should never be established, 
and that her name be effaced forever from every pub- 
lic and official act," was no mean cause of hostilities, 
while Austria and Prussia were too deeply involved in 
the piratical possession, to make the intervention de- 
sirable. He accepted the heroic men, yet struck no 
blow for Polish freedom. There is an apology in the 
complication of affairs, and still is it true, that the em- 
peror never periled an iota of his power, or swerved 
from his single object of attaining a higher summit of 
glory, by the rescue or protection of a dependent na- 
tion. It was necessity or ambitious choice that guided 
his interposition whenever given to the kingdoms and 
colonies for which despots contended. 

He remained three weeks at Wilna, detained by the 
slowness of the arrival of supplies, and the imprompti- 
tude of his commissariat; a pause Alexander with 
energy improved. A million of soldiers inured to the 
rigors of a polar winter, swarmed to the standard of 
the autocrat. Moscow offered eighty thousand men ; 
the Grand Duchess of Eussia, whose rival was Maria 
Louisa, equipped a regiment on her own estate ; and 
the Cossack- chief Platoff bid for Napoleon's life, with 
the premium of his only daughter, and a dower of 
200,000 rubles. 

" The Eussian plan of defense was already ascer- 
tained, and alarming. The country was laid utterly 



352 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

desolate wherever they retired ; every village waa 
burned ere they quitted it; the enthusiastic peasantry 
withdrew with the army, and swelled its ranks." 

With these scenes of conflagration hourly occurring, 
and bloody battles between, the French legions hast- 
ened toward Moscow. 

" On the 5th of September, Napoleon came in sight 
of the position of Kutusoff, and succeeded in carrying 
a redoubt in front of it. All the 6th the two armies 
lay in presence of each other, preparing for the con- 
test. The Eussians were posted on an elevated plain ; 
having a wood on their right flank, their left on one 
of the villages, and a deep ravine, the bed of a small 
stream, in their front. Extensive field-works covered 
every more accessible point of this naturally very 
strong ground ; and in the centre of the whole line, a 
gentle eminence was crowned by an, enormous battery, 
serving as a species of citadel. The Eussian army 
were one hundred and twenty thousand in number ; 
nor had Napoleon a greater force in readiness for his 
attack. In artillery also the armies were equal. It 
is supposed that each had five hundred guns in the 
field. 

" To his sanguinary troops Napoleon said, ' Sol- 
diers ! here is the battle you have longed for ; it is 
necessary, for it brings us plenty— good winter quar- 
ters, and a safe return to our country. Behave your- 
selves so that posterity may say of each of you. He 
was in that great conflict beneath the walls of Moscow.' 

At four o'clock in the morning of the 7th, the 
French advanced under cover of a thick fog, and 
assaulted at once the centre, the right, and the left of 
the position. Such was the impetuosity of the charge 
that they drove the Eussians from their redoubts ; but 
this was but for a moment. They rallied under the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 353 

very Hue of their enemy's fire, and instantly re- 
advanced. Peasants who, till that hour, had never 
seen war, and who still wore their usual rustic dress, 
distinguished only by a cross sewed on it in front, 
threw themselves into the thickest of the combat. As 
they fell, others rushed on and filled their places. 
Some idea may be formed of the obstinacy of the con- 
test from the fact, that of one division of the Russians 
which mustered thirty thousand in the morning, only 
eight thousand survived. These men had fought 
in close order and unshaken, under the fire of eighty 
pieces of artillery. The result of this terrible day was, 
that Bonaparte withdrew his troops and abandoned all 
hope of forcing his way through the Eussians. In no 
contest by many degrees so desperate had he hitherto 
been engaged. Night found either army on the 
ground they had occupied at daybreak. The number 
of guns and prisoners taken by the French and the 
Russians was about equal; and of either host there 
had fallen no less than forty thousand men. Some 
accounts raise the gross number of the slain to one 
hundred thousand. Such was the victory in honor of 
which Napoleon created marshal Ney Prince of 
MosTcwa. 

Bonaparte, when advised by his generals, toward 
the conclusion of the day, to bring forward his own 
guard and hazard one final attack at their head, an- 
swered, " And if my guard fail, what means should I 
have for renewing the battle to-morrow?" The Rus- 
sian commander, on the other hand, spared nothing to 
prolong the contest. During the night after, his 
cavalry made several attempts to break into the ene- 
my's hues ; and it was only on receiving the reports 
of his regimental ofiicers in the morning, that Kutus- 
off perceived the necessity of retiring until he should 



354 LIFE OF NAPOLEOlSr BONAPARTE. 

be further recruited. His army was tlie mainstay of 
liis country ; on its utter dissolution, his master might 
have found it very dif&cult to form another; but 
while it remained perfect in its organization, the pa- 
triotic population of the empire were sure to fill up, 
readily every vacancy in its ranks. Having ascertained 
then the extent of his loss, and buried his dead 
(among whom was the gallant Bagrathion) with great 
solemnity — the Russian slowly and calmly withdrew 
from his intrenchments, and marched on Mqjaisk. 
Naopleon was so fortunate as to be joined exactly at 
this time by two fresh divisions from Smolensko, 
which nearly restored his muster to what it had been 
ere the battle began ; and, thus reinforced, commanded 
the pursuit to be vigorously urged. On the 9th, the 
French van came in sight of the Russian rear again, 
and Bonaparte prepared for battle. But next morn- 
ing Kutusoflf had masked his march so effectually, by 
scattering clouds of Cossacks in every direction around 
the French, that down to the 12th the invader re- 
mained uncertain whether he had retreated on Ka- 
louga, or directly to the capital. The latter he, at 
length, found to be the case ; and on the 14th of Sep- 
tember Napoleon reached the Hill of Salvation; so 
named because from that eminence the Russian traveler 
obtains his first view of the ancient metropolis, affec- 
tionately called " Mother Moscow," and hardly less 
sacred in his eye than Jerusalem. The soldiery be- 
held with joy and exultation the magnificent extent 
of the place ; its mixture of Gothic steeples and 
oriental domes ; the vast and splendid mansions of the 
haughty boyards, embosomed in trees ; and, high over 
all the rest, the huge towers of the Kremlin, at once 
the palace and the citadel of the old czars. The cry 
of " Moscow ! Moscow I" ran through the lines. Na 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 855 

poleon himself reined in his horse and exclaimed, 
" Behold at last that celebrated city !" He added, 
after a brief pause, " It was time." 

Bonaparte had not gazed long on this great capital 
ere it struck him as something remarkable that no 
smoka issued from the chimneys. Neither appeared 
there any military on the battlements of the old walls 
and towers. There reached him neither message oi 
defiance, nor any deputation of citizens to present the 
keys of their town, and recommend it and themselves 
to his protection. He was yet marveling what these 
strange circumstances could mean, when Murat, who 
commanded in the van, and had pushed on to the 
gates, came back and informed him that he had held 
a parley with Milarodowitch, the general of the Eussian 
rear-guard, and that, unless two hours were granted 
for the safe withdrawing of his troops, he would at 
once set fire to Moscow, Napoleon immediately 
granted the armistice. The two hours elapsed, and 
still no procession of nobles or magistrates made its 
appearance. 

On entering the city the French found it deserted 
by all but the very lowest and most wretched of its 
vast population. They soon spread themselves over 
its innumerable streets, and commenced the work of 
pillage. The magnificent palaces of the Eussian boy- 
ards, the bazaars of the merchants, churches, and con- 
vents, and public buildings of every description, 
swarmed with their numbers, The meanest soldier 
clothed himself in silk and furs, and drank at his 
pleasure the costliest wines. Napoleon, perplexed 
at the abandonment of so great a city, had some 
difficulty in keeping together thirty thousand men, 
who followed Miarodowitch, and watched the walls od 
that side. 



356 LTFK OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The emperor, who had retired to rest in a suburban 
palace, was aw:ilconcd at mi(bii,!^ht by the cry o{ fire. 
The chief niarkct-])lace was in llanios ; and Homo 
hours elapsed ere they could bo extinguished by the 
exertions of the soldiciy. While tlic fire still bla/.od, 
Napoleon established his head (piartcrs in the Krem- 
lin,* and wrote, by that fatal light, a letter to the czar, 
containing projiosals for peace. The letter was com- 
mitted to a prisoner of rank ; no answer ever 
reached Bonaparte. 

Next morning found the fire extinguished, and the 
1^'ronch oiliccrs were busied throughout the day in se- 
lecting houses for their residence. The flames how- 
ev(^r, burst out again as night set in, and under cir- 
cumstances which might well fdl the mind of the 
invaders with astonishment and with alarm. Various 
detached parts of the city appeared to be at once on 
fire ; combustibles and matches were discovered in 
dilferont pLiees as laid deliberately; the water ])ipes 
were cut : the wind changed three times in the course 
of the night, and the flames always broke out again 
with new vigor in the quarter from whi(;h tlie prevail- 
ing breeze blew right on the Kremlin. It was suffi- 
ciently plain that Tlostopehin, governor of Moscow, 
' had adopted the same jdan of resistance in which 
Smolensko had already been sacrificed; and Ins 
agents, whenever they f(^^l into the hands of the 
French, were massacred without mercy. 

The efforts to Stop the flames were all in vain, and 
it was not long ere a raging sea of fire swept the capi- 
tal east, west, north, and south. During four days the 
conflagration continued, and four fifths of the city were 
wliolly consumed. "Palaces and temples," says the 
Kussian author, Karamsin, " monuments of art and 
* Tho anciout pnlaoo of Uio ozmu 



LIFE OF NArOLEON IJONAl'AllTE. o.')? 

miracles of liixiiiy, the remains of ages long since past, 
and the creations of yesterday, the tombs of ancestors, 
and tho cradles of children, were indiscriminately 
destroyed. Nothing was loll of Moscow savo tho 
n:iemory of her people, and their deep resolution to 
avenge her fall." 

During two days Na})oleon witnessed from tho 
Kremlin tho spread of this fearful devastation, and, in 
spite of continual showers of sparks and brands, re- 
fused to listen to those who counseled retreat. On tho 
third night, the cquinoctical gale rose, the Kremlin 
itself took lire, and it became doubtful whether it 
would be possible for him to withdraw in safety ; and 
then he at length rode out of Moscow, through si;rcets 
in many parts arched over with llames, anil buried, 
where this was not tho case, in one dense mantle of 
smoke. "These are, indeed, Scythians," said Na])o- 
leon. IIo halted, and fixed his headquarters at Tc- 
trowsky, a country palace of tho czar, about a league 
distant. But he could not withdraw his eyes from tho 
rueful spectacle which the burning city presented, and 
from time to time repeated the same words: "This 
bodes great misfortune." 

Napoleon again reoceuj)icd tho Kremlin, around 
which lay in smoldering heaps the iiiirest portion of 
the city, on the 20th, when the conflagration had spent 
its fury. With characteristic levity, the French troops 
opened a theatre, whose api)lauded actors were sent 
from Paris by the order of Napoleon. 

Tiie silence of Alexander began to awaken the pre- 
sentiment of still more serious events. Tho successes 
of the llussian forces in the battles with their enemy 
on the south, threatened to cut off communications 
with the magazines in Poland. But the resistless foe, 
whose power the emperor feared, was advancing upon 



358 LIFE OF ISTaPOLEOJST BONAPARTE. 

him. Winter^ witla its northern severity and dismal 
length, was at hand. A second letter to the autocrat, 
was dispatched, with proposals of peace. 

Count Lauriston presented himself to Kutusoft' at 
his head-quarters, early in October, but was refused a 
passport. Kutusoff denied the right to give one, but 
offered to transmit the letter to St. Petersburg. It 
drew forth no reply. Autumn scattered tlie sere 
leaves; and to the dismay of Napoleon, October 13th, 
three weeks earlier than at any recorded period before, 
the snow shrouded the landscape, and fringed the 
blackened walls of abandoned cities. Upon the 18th, 
in a sanguinary conflict at Vincovo between Bennig- 
sen and Murat, the French sustained an immense loss. 
This hastened the evacuation of Moscow, which the 
emperor had seen to be inevitable. The immense host 
poured through the gates into the merciless embrace 
of the destroying elements. Mortier lingered with 
3,000 men, to guard the retreat, and blow up as the 
farewell peal of war's infernal thunder, the massive 
walls of the Kremlin. 

Desprcz, Joseph Bonaparte's aide-de-camp, visited 
Napoleoa just before the evacuation, with dispatches 
from the King of Spain, presenting to the emperor his 
declining power in the Peninsula. Desprez, upon his re- 
turn to Paris, wrote to his sovereign, the dipleasure of 
the emperor regarding his management of the war, 
and gave the following account of the grand army at 
Moscow : 

" The army, when T quitted it, was in the most hor- 
rible misery. For a long while previously the dis- 
order and losses had been frightful ; the artillery and 
cavalry had ceased to exist. The different regiments 
were all mixed together; the soldiers marched pell- 
mell, and sought only how to prolong mechanically 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 359 

tlieir existence. Although the enemy was on all sides 
of us, thousands of men strayed every day into the 
neighboring villages, and fell into the hands of the 
Cossacks. Nevertheless, large as is the number of 
prisoners, that of the dead exceeds it. It is impossible 
to describe the famine ; during more than a month 
there were no rations; dead horses were the only 
resource, and even the marshals were frequently in 
want of bread. The severity of the climate I'endered 
hunger more fatal ; every night we left at the bivouac 
several hundred corpses. I think that I may, with- 
out exaggeration, estimate those who have been lost 
in this manner at one hundred thousand — the truth is 
best expressed by saying that the army is dead. The 
young guard, which formed part of the corps to which 
I was attached, was eight thousand strong when we 
left Moscow; at Wilna it scarcely numbered four 
hundred. All the other corps are reduced in the 
same proportion ; and as the flight did not end at 
the Niemen, I am jDcrsuaded that not twenty thousand 
men reached the Vistula. It was believed in the 
army that a great many soldiers were on in front, who 
would rally when it was possible to suspend the re- 
treat. I convinced myself of the contrary ; at five 
leagues from head-quarters I met no more stragglers, 
and I was then aware of the extent of the calamity. 

" A single fact may give your majesty an idea of 
the state of things. Since crossing the Niemen a 
corps of eight hundred Neapolitans, the only corps 
which has preserved any sort of order, formed the 
rear- guard of a French army the strength of which 
once amounted to three hundred thousand men. It is 
impossible to say how contagious was the disorder : 
the corps of the Dukes of Belluno and Keggio amounted 
together to thirty thousand men when they crossed 



360 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

the Beresina; two days afterward they liad melted 
away like tlie rest of tlie army. Sending reinforce- 
ments only increased the losses, and at last we became 
aware that fresh troops must not be allowed to come 
in contact with a disorderly multitude which could no 
long<;r be called an army. The King of Naples de- 
clared that, in delegating the command to him, the 
emperot exacted the greatest possible proof of his de- 
votion. Both the moral and physical strength of the 
Prince of Neufchatel were completely exhausted. If 
your majesty were now to ask me when the retreat is 
to end, I can say only that it depends on the enemy. 
I do not think Prussia will make much effort to defend 
her territory. M. de Narbonne, whom I saw at Berlin, 
and who was the bearer of letters from the emperor to 
the King of Prussia, told me that both the king and his 
prime minister were favorably disposed, but that he 
was aware that the feeling of the nation was different. 
Already several brawls had taken place between the 
citizens of Berlin and the soldiers of the French gar- 
rison; and when I passed through Prussia I had 
opportunities of convincing myself that no trust could 
be placed in our recent ally. 

" It seems also that in the Austrian army the of&cers 
declaim openly against the war. 

'' Sad as this picture is, I believe it to be painted 
without exaggeration, and that my observations have 
been made with impartiality. Mj'^ estimate of the ex- 
tent of the evil is the same now as it was when I was 
nearer to the scene of action." 

Napoleon marched with his wasting battalions by 
a new route toward Smolensk, The Cossacks made 
fearful havoc with the scattered companies,- cutting 
them down, plundering, and then on their fleet horses 
retiring to their forest-lair. When he passed the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 361 

Souja, the emperor came near falling into their hands ; 
but in their lust for spoil, they overlooked the defiant, 
weary leader in this terrible march of death. October 
23d, he rested at Borousk, sixty miles from Moscow. 
A few miles farther on lay Eugene's force of eighteen 
thousand troojDS. Before dawn of the next day the 
Eussians fell upon him, and after a bloday struggle 
were compelled to leave the field. Napoleon embraced 
Eugene, and exclaimed, "This is the most glorious of 
your feats of arms." 

Learning here that one hundred and thirty thousand 
Eussians, strongly intrenched, crossed his path, he 
called a council of war. He decided, with bitter dis- 
appointment, to abandon the attempt to press through 
the defiles of Kalouga, and retire to the " war-scathed 
road" in which he came so proudly to the fatal plains 
of the north. The Eussian army, ignorant of the 
movement, and alarmed by the victory of Eugene, also 
began a retreat ; the two armies thus flying from each 
other, but neither aware of the advantage given. For 
seven hundred and fifty miles, Napoleon had but two 
points at which repose and supplies could be obtained. 
Upon this awful march — this " Iliad of woes" — the 
great captain, and peerless monarch, sadly, despond- 
ingly entered. 

It was on the 26th, that the march commenced, and 
on the 28th the army passed over the field of Boro- 
dino. The unburied, decaying dead, half-eaten by 
the wolves, made the living soldier pass with averted 
face to his own fate — mortal agony on the spear-point 
of the Cossack, or the lethargy which has no waking. 
Three hundred miles were traversed in ten days ; and 
yet onward, between the Eussian columns watching 
their progress — followed by the dashing, savage hordes 
of Platoff — and the hunger-maddened wolves, the 

16 



862 LIFE OF NAPOLEOISr BONAPARTE. 

struggling columns moved. With November came 
the settled gloom and unalleviated cold of a Russian 
winter. Storms howled around the thinning ranks of 
the grand cavalcade, and the angrj sky grew dark 
above them. They fell in battalions to rise no more 
till the resurrection morning. The brave, indomit- 
able, chivalrous Ney, protected this retreat of the im- 
perial army ; and his marvelous skill, his endurance 
and courage, elevated his rank in the admiration of 
the world, nearer his commander, than that of any 
other man in the constellation of noble marshals who 
waited on Napoleon. 

November 9th, the emperor was before Smolensk. 
Instead of the promised and expected supplies for his 
soldiers, there was nothing but brandy — the direst foe 
of the hungry and benumbed soldiers. They drank 
and died in groups along the icy streets. Since the 
departure from Moscow, eighty thousand men had 
fallen, and no more than forty thousand could now 
enter the battle-field, were the opposhig armies to 
meet, 

A messenger had reached Napoleon with intelli- 
gence which increased his fears, and his desire to be in 
the capital of France. Mallet, an officer, forged a re- 
port of the emperor's death, and gathered to his stand- 
ard, in the excitement which followed, a part of the 
national guard. He was arrested and shot. But the 
conspiracy revealed to Napoleon the frail tenure of his 
regal authority, and how little, a son might have to do 
with the continuance of his dynasty. 

Five days were passed in Smolensk, receiving dis- 
patches, and preparing for the final eifort to reach the 
boundaries of friendly territory. 

Murat, Eugene, Davoust, and Ney commanded the 
divisions of an army, reduced to less than one tenth 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 863 

of its original numbers. Kutusoff with more than 
double the force, hung along his track, in a parallel 
line of march. 

At length he advanced and crossed the path of his 
enemy. A battle followed, and through wasting car- 
nage the first division cut its way. Eugene's battal- 
ions followed, and met the same wall of bristling 
bayonets and batteries. But the columns moved on, 
and were mowed down in ranks, till only a remnant 
escaped. This band had no other hope, but to leave 
their camp-fires burning, and creep around the impreg- 
nable position. A Kussian sentinel saw a company of 
them and gave the challenge ; but a Pole answered in 
the national dialect, and all was silent. The deception 
saved the brave four thousand under Beauharnais. 
Davoust and Mortier, were at Krasnoi, holding the 
enemy back, if possible, till Ney could join them. 
This splendid officer who led the rear-guard, found at 
Smolensk the heaps of the dead, assuring him of ac- 
cumulating disasters upon the advanced divisions of 
the army. The opposition to his progress was incon- 
siderable, till he reached the ravine of Sormina, over 
which hung a curtain of heavy mist, and obscured the 
masses of Eussian troops, and the frowning batteries 
which lay beyond. He Avas in the resistless grasp of 
the foe. 

A Russian officer summoned Ney to surrender. "A 
marshal of France never surrenders," was the heroic 
answer ; and instantly the artillery, distant only two 
hundred and fifty yards, poured its storm of grape 
shot into his ranks. Ney plunged into the ravine, 
crossed the stream, and charged the astonished legions 
at the cannon's mouth. He was beaten back by the 
merciless fire, and still held his original position under 
the very shadow of the grim batteries through which not 



364: LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

a man could pass alive. Napoleon, meanwhile, was 
deeply anxious for the fate of his favorite marshal. 
He expressed the intensest interest, and waited in sus- 
pense to catch some tidings of his safety or death. 
The night after the combat, Ney deserted his camp at 
midnight, and retraced his steps, till he came to a small 
stream, which, he told his men, must enter into the 
Dnieper. On through the untraveled, howling wil- 
derness — through snow, and across icy plains — the in- 
trepid marshal led his brave band. He was not mis- 
taken in his plan ; he came upon the great river which 
he sought, and found a surface of ice, which swayed 
and cracked beneath his feet. The soldiers in single 
file passed over ; but the wagons laden with the 
wounded and the ordnance, crushed the frail bridge, 
and went down into the cold waters, sending upward 
to the gloomy .heavens, a shriek of wild and bitter 
agony. The Cossacks were also upon them. ISTey 
Bent to Napoleon at Orcha for assistance. Upon hear- 
ing the intelligence, the emperor sprang toward the 
messenger, and exclaimed : " Is that really true ? Are 
you sure of it ? I have two hundred millions of gold 
in my vaults at the Tuilleries ; I would give them all 
to save Marshal Key." Eugene went to the rescue, 
and in a few hours, the remnants of the grand divis- 
ions of the imperial army, reduced since leaving 
Smolensk from forty thousand to twelve thousand 
men, met with mournful joy at Orcha. There were 
but one hundred and fifty of the cavalry, and to 
remedy the deficiency, five hundred officers still pos- 
sessing horses were formed "into a sacred band," to 
guard the person of ■ Napoleon. The Dnieper was 
crossed, but tidings of additional disaster reached him. 
Minsk had fallen ; another oasis in the desert was 
wiped out by the legions of Eussia. A new line of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 365 

marcli into Poland, was cliosen, north of the ruined 
town, and haste was demanded, to escape the success- 
ful Witgenstein on the right flank, and Tchichagoff on 
his left. The Beresina was to be the next cold and 
rushing stream, whose passage would be disputed by 
the un wasted columns of Alexander. The point of 
transit selected by Napoleon was Borizoflf, when he 
heard that Dambrouski who commanded there had 
been defeated by Witgenstein, and abandoned the 
position, ne then advanced farther up, to Stud- 
zianska. 

" His twelve thousand men, brave and determined, 
but no longer preserving in their dress, nor, unless 
when the trumpet blew, in their demeanor, a soldier- 
like appearance, were winding their way amid these 
dark woods, when suddenly the air around them was 
filled with sounds which could only proceed from the 
march of some far greater host. They were preparing 
for the worst, when they found themselves in presence 
of the advanced guard of the united army of Victor 
and Oudinot, who had indeed been defeated by Wit- 
genstein, but still mustered fifty thousand men, com- 
pletely equipped, and hardly shaken in discipline. 
With what feelings must these troops have surveyed 
the miserable, half starved, and half-clad remains of 
that "grand army," their own detachment from whose 
banners had, some few short months before, filled 
every bosom among them with regret!" 

Oudinot had been left at Smolensk, and upon the 
evacuation of Moscow, was ordered to move forward 
to secure the retreat. Yictor was severely wounded 
at Polotsk, and compelled to retire to Wilna. These 
brave men parted with grief from the confident host 
of invasion ; and now with deeper sorrow, welcomed 
tlie ragged, famishing, freezing, and bleeding remains 



866 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

of that unrivaled army, a few miles from Borizoff, 
■which the marshals had meanwhile retaken. With 
this augmented force, the emperor moved toward the 
Beresina. The river was three hundred yaras wide, 
six feet in depth, and full of floating ice. Napoleon 
"with artful manoeuvres, deceived his enemy, and the 
Eussian commander withdrew from Studzianska to a 
position eighteen miles below. When it was shown 
to the emperor, he exclaimed, " Then I have outwitted 
the general?" Before the Russians discovered the mis- 
take, two bridges were thrown across the stream, and 
Oudinot had passed over. When Napoleon gained 
the opposite shore, his words of triumph were, " My 
star still reigns !" November 27th the coflict opened. 
Into the crowded mass of soldiers, the women and 
wounded, the Russians poured their iron hail of death. 

One of the bridges broke down in the midst of the 
carnage, beneath the weight of artillery and troops, 
and plunged the shrieking multitude into the flood. 
A survivor of the campaign said, afterward, " the 
scream that rose, did not leave my ears for weeks ; it 
was heard clear and loud over the hurrahs of Cossacks, 
and all the roar of artillery." "Victor defended the 
bridge until evening, while the columns trampling 
on the dead and dying, advanced in the cannonade of 
the Eussian batteries; he then followed, leaving the 
wounded and straggling portions of the army, on the 
enemy's bank. He fired the bridge and left them to 
their fate, as the stern necessity of war. When spring 
thawed the Beresina, twelve thousand bodies were 
drifted from its bed. 

December 8d the struggling companies arrived at 
Molodaczno. Here they met supplies dispatched from 
Wilna, to which town were sent immediately, under 
escort, the wounded and whatever encumbered the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 367 

army. Napoleon called a council of war, and an- 
nounced the decision to his officers of returning with- 
out delay to Paris. 

The troops were near the soil of Poland, and sure of 
an abundance to feed and clothe them. The design 
was approved, and the emperor on the 6th, leaving 
the chief command to Murat, bade the garrison and 
relics of the " grand army," drawn up before Wilna, 
adieu, and set off at midnight with a few attendants in 
three sledges, for the capital of France. Near Warsaw 
he just escaped falling into the hands of a company of 
Russians ; and on the 10th entered that city. His 
embassador there. Abbe de Pradi, whose mission was a 
flxilure, which occasioned his removal, congratulated 
the emperor upon his deliverance from so great 
dangers. "Dangers," cried Napoleon, "there were 
none — I have beat the Russians in every battle — I live 
but in dangers — it is for kings of Cockaigne to sit at 
home at ease. My army is in a superb condition still 
— it will be recruited at leisure at Wilna, and I go to 
bring up three hundred thousand men more from 
France." 

On the 14th he was at Dresden, and visited by the 
king of Saxony, who renewed his pledge of fidelity. 

Four days later, he entered the Tuilleries after Maria 
Louisa had retired to sleep. A cry of alarm from the 
startled inmates roused the empress, and in another 
moment she embraced, with unfeigned affection, the 
royal fngitive. The next morning he held a levee, and 
freely declared the disastrous ravages of fire and frost 
among his annihilated army. The eighty thousand 
soldiers and stragglers left at Wilna continued to 
waste away before the increasing cold. Crossing the 
bridge at Kowno with only thirty thousand — the " Old 
Guard" was reduced to three hundred men — Marsha] 



368 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

Key had. fouglit Ms way on, his path lined and paved 
witli his slaughtered and frozen troops, and was the 
last to pass the bridge, with thirty heroes by his side. 
Calmly walking back toward the enemy's shore, he 
fired the last shot, and threw his gun into the river. 
"When he met General Dumas on the German side, in 
the house of a friend, he answered to the question, 
" Who are you ?" "I am the rear-guard of the grand 
army — Marshal Ney. I have fired the last musket 
shot on the bridge of Kowno, I have thrown into the 
Kiemen the last of our arms, and I have walked hither, 
as you see me, across the forest." The annals of war 
can present no more sublime defiance of an uncon- 
quered will, and quenchless ardor of devotion to hi» 
king and country. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

Napoleon's reception after the defeat in Russia. — His character. — Tlie 
new coahtion. — Battle of Lutzen. — Entrance into Dresden. — Battle 
of Bautzen. — Negotiations. — Metternich. — Tlie p]an of campaign. — ■ 
Siege of Dresden. — Disasters. — Napoleon's desperate courage. — 
Battle of Leipsic. — Murat abandon.s tlie Emperor's cause. — Treach- 
ery of the Allies. — The Senate of France falter in their support. — 
Napoleon's rebuke. — Correspondence with Joseph. — Napoleon at 
the Tuilleries. — He enters on the final struggle — Battle of Brienne. 
— ^Letters. — "Want of arms. — Letters. — The progress of the Allies. — 
Napoleon's expedition on the Marne. — His victories. — Letters from 
Joseph on the condition of Paris. — Negotiations for Peace. — Napo- 
leon's account of the crisis in his affairs. — His policy in his extrem- 
ity. — Battle of Leon. — Rheims. — Letters to Joseph. — The last strug- 
gle. — The Allies advance toward Paris. — The flight of the Court. — 
The capitulation. 

The twenty-ninth bulletin of Napoleon had pre- 
pared the popular mind to welcome the emperor, whose 
eloquent words assured his subjects that the resistless 
elements alone had snatched victory from the grand 
army. Although nearly every family of the empire 
was in mourning, his magical name and presence 
restored the confidence, and renewed the devotion of 
the people. The senate, of&cials, and public bodies, 
all pressed up to the throne, with expressions of hom- 
age and applause. Enlistments were ordered, and the 
regiments of fresh troops gathered to his standard by 
thousands. The arsenals were alive with preparation, 
and in each habitation, the farewell to some manly in- 
mate was spoken. Within a few weeks, Napoleon 
was at the head of three hundred and fifty thousand 

16* 



370 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

soldiers, fresh from tlie bosom of a loyal, gallant na- 
tion. The grandeur of his genius, was seen and felt 
at home and abroad, in the magnificent expenditures 
of money and labor during these years of war with 
the rest of Europe, in national improvements. The 
whole sum laid out on canals, docks, harbors and 
public buildings, in nine years, was $200,000,000. 
Such achievements of intellect and power, stamp 
Napoleon with a fascinating pre-eminence, which may 
lead the historian, and admirer of brilliant deeds, to a 
partial estimate of moral qualities, which are essential 
elements of true greatness. Napoleon's character was 
deficient in the strength and purity which have in- 
vested with a benign attraction the names of earth's 
noblest heroeS' — elevating far above Alexander, Han- 
nibal, and Napoleon, in the scale of being, Washing- 
ton, and the less successful Louis Kossuth of Hun- 
gary. Every rational mind feels the transcendent 
excellence of these Christian virtues, which we do not 
discern in the Emperor of France, and without which, 
ambition must ever have an alliance with brute force, 
and be directed mainly to personal glory. But it is 
also undeniable that Napoleon was vastly superior in 
intellectual and moral proportions to the monarchs 
with whom he contended ; and in his great campaigns, 
was sustained in the general principle of lawful war, 
by the violation of sacred treaties on the part of his 
enemies. 

This does not change the motives which ruled him 
in the invasion of Egypt, the seizure of Naples, the 
eonquest of Spain, the divorce of Josephine, the awful 
tragedy of the Eussian expedition. 

Napoleon was again mustering his energies for the 
conflict with surrounding kings. Frederic William 
gf Prussia, a sincere ally, desired to continue his friendly 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. o71 

relations with France. The garrisons of the emperor, 
scattered over the Prussian territory, were unable to 
keep the people in subordination. The king inter- 
posed, indeed, his authority to protect the soldiers 
of Napoleon from popular violence ; but it soon be- 
came manifest that their safety must depend on their 
concentrating themselves in a small number of fortified 
places ; and that even if Frederic William had been 
cordially anxious to preserve his alliance with France, it 
would ere long be impossible for him to resist the unani- 
mous wishes of his people. Murat was soon weary of his 
command. He found himself thwarted and controlled 
by the other generals, none of whom respected his au- 
thority ; and one of whom, when he happened to speak 
of himself in the same breath with the sovereigns of Aus- 
tria and Prussia, answered, without ceremony, " You 
must remember that these are kings by the grace of 
God, and by descent, and by custom ; whereas you are 
only a king by the grace of Napoleon, and through the 
expenditure of French blood." Murat was moreover 
jealous of the extent to which his queen was under- 
stood to be playing the sovereign in Naples, and he 
threw up his command. Eugene succeeded him at 
the moment when it was obvious that Frederic 
William could no Ipnger, even if he would, repress 
the universal enthusiasm of his people. On the 31st 
of January the king made his escape to Breslau, in 
which neighborhood no French were garrisoned, 
erected his standard, and called on the nation to rise 
in arms. Whereon Eugene retired to Magdeburg, and 
shut himself up in that great fortress, with as many 
troops as he could assemble to the west of the Elbe. 

Six years had elapsed since the fatal day of Jena ; 
and the Prussian nation had recovered in a great 
measure its energies. The people now answered the 



372 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

call of their beloved prince, as witli the heart and 
voice of one man. Young men of all ranks, the high- 
est and the lowest, flocked indiscriminately to the 
standard: the students of the universities formed 
themselves into battalions, at the head of which, in 
many instances, their teachers marched. The women 
flung their trinkets into the king's treasury — ^the gen- 
tlemen melted their plate — ^England poured in her 
gold with a lavish hand. The rapidity with which 
discipline was established among the great levies thus 
assembled, excited universal astonishment. 

In March the allies met at Breslau ; Alexander em- 
braced cordially Frederic "William. It was stipulated 
in the conditions of coalition, that the German powers 
should be required to join the alliance against Kapo- 
leon, or forfeit their estates. The King of Saxony 
refused the demand, and was compelled to flee from 
his capital. The allies then marched over his realm, 
and entered triumphantly Dresden. Bernadotte landed 
thirty five thousand troops at Stralsund. England 
lavished gold by millions, to secure the revolution in 
feeling and action among these rulers, at this crisis of 
apparent weakness and waning power of Napoleon. 
The struggle in Spain continued. Thus once more 
the storm blackened around the>single kingly captain, 
who had for twenty years rocked a continent with his 
advancing steps. 

April 15th, Napoleon left St. Cloud for the banks 
of the Saale, the head-quarters of his army. Maria 
Louisa had been created regent of the empire dur- 
ing his absence. She was amiable and loved by 
the emperor, who often expressed his entire confidence 
in her fidelity and devotion. On the 25th, he reached 
Brfurth, to lead onward in the shock of a continental 
struggle, his battalions of youthful, and enthusiastic 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 373 

recruits. His eagle eye was toward Dresden, where 
the czar and the King of Prussia were waiting for the 
coming of Russian legions, designing to move toward 
Leipsio. 

May 2d, the hostile armies met unexpectedly on the 
old battle-ground which drank the blood of Gustavus 
Adolphus, near the town of Lutzen. Crossing the 
Elster under cover of a dense fog, the allied forces 
emerged from the interposing heights, and fell upon 
the columns of Napoleon. During eight hours, the 
slaughter went on, and the young men fell in ranks 
around their emperor, toward whom was turned their 
dying glance. At last, Napoleon brought forward his 
guard, with sixty pieces of artillery, and entered like 
a falling avalanche, the living masses of disciplined 
soldiers. The field was won, but too dearly for pur- 
suit. 

The allies retreated to Leipsic, thence to Dresden, 
and finally crossed the Elbe to Bautzen. 

This result was another splendid achievement of 
Napoleon's genius. The advantage in the opening 
conflict was with his enemies, but he wrung the 
victory from their hands. He ordered the Te Deum 
to be sung in the churches, in commemoration of the 
first success of his arms since he fled from the snow- 
fields of Russia. He advanced to Dresden ; and be- 
neath the smile of a vernal day, reflected from the 
trappings and weapons of war, he entered the streets 
of the beautiful city, with a jubilant welcome from the 
subjects of his faithful friend, the King of Saxony. 
The aristocracy who had hailed the apprearance of the 
allies, waited on the emperor ; and the hitherto waver- 
ing army joined his legions. 

" While the emperor paused at Dresden, Ney made 
various demonstrations in the direction of Berlin, with 



374 LIFE OF ISrAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

the view of inducing the allies to quit Bautzen ; but 
it soon became manifest that they had resolved to 
sacrifice the Prussian capital, if it were necessary, 
rather than forego their position ; by adhering to which 
they well knew Bonaparte must ultimately be com- 
pelled to carry his main force into a diflS.cult and 
mountainous country, in place of acting in the open 
plains of Saxony and Brandenburg. 

" Having replaced by wood- work some arches of the 
magnificent bridge over the Elbe, at Dresden, which 
the allies had blown up on their retreat, Kapoleon 
now moved toward Bautzen, and came in sight of the 
position on the morning of the 21st of May. Its 
strength was obviously great. In their front was the 
river Spree : wooded hills supported their right, and 
eminences well fortified their left. The action began 
with an attempt to turn their right, but Barclay de 
Tolly anticipated this movement, and repelled it with 
such vigor, that a whole column of seven thousand 
dispersed, and fled into the hills of Bohemia for safety. 
The emperor then determined to pass the Spree in 
front of the enemy, and they permitted him to do so, 
rather than come down from their position. He took 
up his quarters in the town of Bautzen, and his whole 
army bivouacked in presence of the allies. The battle 
was resumed at daybreak on the 22d ; when Ney on 
the right, and Oadinot on the left, attempted simul- 
taneously to turn the flanks of the position; while 
Soult and Napoleon himself directed charge after 
charge on the centre. During four hours the struggle 
was maintained with unflinching obstinacy ; the 
wooded heights where Blucher commanded, had been 
taken and retaken several times — the bloodshed, on 
either side, had been terrible — ere, the situation of 
both flanks being apparent, the allies perceived the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 375 

necessity either of retiring, or of continuing the fight 
against superior numbers on disadvantageous ground. 
They withdrew accordingly ; but still with all the de- 
liberate coolness of a parade ; halting at every favor- 
able spot, and renewing their cannonade. ' What,' 
exclaimed Napoleon, ' no results ! not a gun ! not a 
prisoner ! — these people will not leave me so much as 
a nail.' During the whole day he urged the pursuit 
with impetuous rage, reproaching even his chosen 
generals as 'creeping scoundrels,' and exposing his 
own person in the very hottest of the fire. By his side 
was Duroc, the grand master of the palace, his dearest 
— many said, ere now, his only friend. Bruyeres, 
another old associate of the Italian wars, was struck 
down in their view. 'Duroc,' whispered Napoleon, 
' fortune has a spite at us this day.' A few minutes 
afterward Duroc himself was mortally wounded. The 
emperor instantly ordered a halt, and remained all the 
afternoon in front of his tent, surrounded by the guard, 
who did not witness his affliction without tears. 
From this time he would listen to no reports or sug- 
gestions. ' Every thing to-morrow,' was his invari- 
able answer. He stood by Duroc while he died ; 
drew up with his own hand an epitaph to be placed 
over his remains by the pastor of the place, who re- 
ceived 200 Napoleons to defray the expense of a fit- 
ting monument ; and issued also a decree in favor of 
his departed friend's children. Thus closed the 22d. 
The allies, being strongly posted during most of the 
day, had suffered less than the French ; the latter had 
lost fifteen thousand, the former ten thousand men. 

" They continued their retreat into upper Silesia ; 
and Napoleon advanced to Breslau and released the 
garrison of Glogau. Meanwhile, the Austrian, having 
watched these inilecisive though bloody fields, oni^e 



376 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

more renewed his offers of mediation. The sovereigns 
of Eussia and Prussia expressed great willingness to 
accept it; and Napoleon also appears to have iDeen 
sincerely desirous for the moment of bringing his dis- 
putes to a peaceful termination. He agreed to an 
armistice, and in arranging its conditions, agreed to 
fall back ont of Silesia ; thus enabling the allied, 
princes to re-open communications with Berlin. The 
lines of country to be occupied by the armies respect- 
ively, during the truce, were at length settled, and it 
was signed on the first of June, Napoleon then re- 
turned to Dresden, and a general congress of diplomat- 
ists prepared to meet at Prague." 

The allies demanded that Napoleon should surren- 
der lUyria, half of Italy, and abandon Spain, Holland, 
the Confederation of the Ehine, and Switzerland. 
Metternich, the unprincipled and cunning politician, 
presented the terms of treaty to Napoleon. 

There was doubtless truth in the words of the em 
peror, who afterward said, " These extravagant propo- 
sitions were made that they might be rejected." The 
concessions would have given, in his declining power, 
the occasion of general conspiracy, and secured his in- 
evitable overthrow. 

He had gone too far to retreat; greater victories or 
a demolished throne was the alternative before him. 
But his enemies wished to gain time for the arrival of 
Bernadotte, and the Russian forces ; while Austrian 
and Prussian relations were more definitely settled. 

The interview between Napoleon and Metternich 
was private and spirited. The emperor expressed his 
surprise that his own father-in-law should declare war 
against France. He offered to give up the Hanse 
towns and Illyria, besides granting the dissolution of 
the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, and the reconstruction 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 877 

of Prussia, to secure peace. He added, " I only wish 
you to be neutral. I can deal with these Eussiana 
and Prussians single-handed. Ah! Metternich, tell 
me honestly how much the English have given you 
to take their part against me?" 

At this crisis, when the allies, conscious of the great- 
ness of Napoleon, and the uncertainty of the conflict, 
were not unwilling to continue negotiations, news of 
the victories in Spain over the French army there, 
elated the enemy, and terminated the armistice. Wel- 
lington had triumphed; Joseph and Jourdan were 
defeated. The duke was ready to pour his columns 
into the valleys of south-western France. 

August 10th 1813, Austria signed the alliance 
offensive and defensive with Russia and Prussia. At 
nightfall, brilliant rockets rose successively along the 
frontier-heights of Bohemia and Silesia, announcing 
the re-opening of war upon the plains of Europe. 
Generals Jomini and Moreau had joined the allied 
troops, and Bernadotte was leading the columns of 
Sweden into the field. This treachery was bitter to 
Napoleon, and ominous of future disasters, Austria 
contributed two hundred thousand men to the army 
which environed Napoleon, making a host of nearly 
five hundred thousand disciplined troops, to encounter 
which he had only about half the number of soldiers. 
He was entering on a desperate struggle for his totter- 
ing throne. The opposing generals had studied the 
emperor's military tactics, and under the direction of 
Bernadotte and Moreau, whose experience was no 
trifling auxiliary, the campaign was wisely planned. 

The commanders agreed that whoever was first 
drawn into the conflict, should retreat, tempting Na- 
poleon to abandon Dresden in the pursuit, and so 
)':^ave the city exposed to an attack by remaining 



378 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

forces. If successful, the magazines would fall iuto 
their hands, and the French army would be broken 
by the interposing divisions of the enemy, while in the 
rear of the French, b-etween the Elbe and the Ehine, 
the allies would extend their lines. 

Blucher, a Prussian, whom Napoleon called ' the 
debauched dragoon," commanding eighty thousand 
Eussian and Prussian troops, threatened Macdonald's 
division. Blucher was a great general, but a man of 
reckless character. Napoleon knew his qualities as 
an officer, and despised his entire want of moral prin- 
ciple. He immediately decided to advance upon him. 
and protect Macdonald. Blucher retired, and the 
emperor pursued him. According to the plan of 
operations, Schwartzenberg, with whom were Alex- 
ander and Francis, marched toward Dresden, August 
25th. An immediate assault would have taken the 
city. But it was not till the next day that the allied 
armies, in six columns, with fifty pieces of artillery, 
opened their terrific fire upon the beautiful capital. 
The carnage defies description. The streets were 
deluged with blood, and the dead lay mangled in the 
gorgeous apartments of princely wealth. St. Oyr, 
who commanded the garrison, was on the borders of 
despair, and the inhabitants pleading for capitulation, 
when Napoleon, with the Imperial Guard, crossed the 
Elbe, and, amid a storm of balls and shells, entered 
the city. Shouts of exultation filled the air. Without 
pausing to rest or eat, the reinforcement rushed to the 
onset ; the allies were driven back, and night inter- 
rupted the wasting conflict. A tempestuous morning 
was the signal for renewed battle ; and with such 
marvelous skill did Napoleon pour his divisions upon 
the encircling host, that, before the close of day, the 
enemy retreated. Moreau, who was reconnoitering 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 379 

the Frencli on a distant eminence in company with 
Alexander, was struck by a cannon-ball, and both his 
legs almost torn from his body. The fire was given 
by Napoleon's order, but without any knowledge of 
those at whom it was directed. With stoical indiffer- 
ence the traitor submitted to amputation, and died 
two days after. The emperor was again victorious; 
but his strength was exhausted, and a sudden attack 
of illness compelled him to return to Dresden. Van- 
damme, a fiery, daring officer, while pursuing the flying 
battalions toward Toepletz, where around the maga- 
zines the scattered forces were rallying, pushed on too 
far into the valley of tbe Culm. Plere he was met by 
the Kussian divisions, and, after a fierce encounter, 
surrendered with eight thousand troops. General 
Oudinot, who was ordered to advance upon Berna- 
dotte, was overwhelmed by a superior force, and de- 
feated. Macdonald was hemmed in within a narrow 
defile, and also conquered. When these tidings of 
disaster reached Napoleon on his couch of suffering at 
Dresden, he said to Murat, " This is the fate of war ; 
exalted in the morning, low enough before night. 
There is but one step between triumph and ruin." A 
map of Germany was spread out before him, and, 
tracing the distances with his compasses, he repeated 
these lines of his favorite poet, Corneille : 

" J'ai servi, commande, vaincu quarante annees ; 
Du monde, entre mes mains, j'ai vu les destiaees ; 
Et j'ai toujours connu qu'en chaque evcnement 
Le destin des etats dependait d'un moment."* 

During the month of September, Napoleon marched 
upon the allies under Blucher and Bernadotte, at dif- 

* I have served, commanded, conquered for forty years. 
Of the world, in my hands, I have seen the destinies : 
An d I have always known, that in each event, 
The destiny of states depended on a moment. 



380 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

ferent points, and was victorious. But his triumplig 
were fruitless ; no decisive results were obtained, and 
his army was declining in strength daily. The King 
of Bavaria was forced to yield to the pressure around 
him, and join the enemy. Jerome, king of West- 
phalia, was driven by revolt from his capital. 

Napoleon, thus plunged into a sea of troubles, had 
one hundred thousand troops with which to face five 
times that number. It was a sublime and touching 
spectacle of greatness passing from the zenith toward 
a horizon of dismal gloom. His purpose was form- 
ed of marching upon Berlin, cutting his way through 
the opposing wall of living men, and by carrying the 
war into the enemy's country, oblige them to retrace 
their steps, and defend their beleagured cities. France 
had responded to the call for 180,000 conscripts to 
strengthen his greatly inferior force. But his ofi&cers, 
exhausted and desponding, refused to support the 
emperor in the bold enterprise — ^the grandest in his 
career. A council of war was called ; and never was 
the mighty heart of Napoleon more oppressed and 
filled with sorrow. His star was already in the dark- 
ness of eclipse. He could do nothing without the en- 
thusiasm of his generals. He yielded to necessity, and 
abandoned the design which he believed would have 
retrieved his fortunes. He now turned toward Leipsic, 
where " as on a common centre, the forces of France, 
and all her enemies, were now at length converging. 
Napoleon reached that venerable city on the 15th 
of October, and almost immediately the heads of 
Schwartzenberg's columns began to appear toward the 
south. It was necessary to prepare on the northern 
side also, in case Bernadotte and Blucher should ap- 
pear ere the grand army was disposed of; and, 
lastly, it was necessary to secure effectually the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 381 

ground to the west of Leipsic; — a series of marshy 
meadows, interfused with the numerous branches of 
the Pieisse and the Elster, through which lies the only 
road to France. Napoleon, having made all his prep- 
arations, reconnoitered every outpost in person, and 
distributed eagles, in great form, to some new regi- 
ments which had just joined him. The ceremonial 
was splendid ; the soldiers knelt before the emperor, 
and in presence of all the line: military mass was 
performed, and the young warriors swore to die rather 
than witness the dishonor of France. Upon this 
scene the sun descended ; and with it the star of Na- 
poleon went down forever, 

" At midnight, three rockets, emitting a brilliant white 
light, sprung into the heavens to the south of the city ; 
these marked the position on which Schwartzenberg 
had fixed his head-quarters. They were answered by 
four rockets of a deep red color, ascending on the 
instant from the northern horizon. Bonaparte had 
with him, to defend the line of villages to the south 
and north of Leipsic, 136.000 men, while, even in the 
absence of Bernadotte, who might be hourly looked 
for, the allies mustered not less than 230,000. 

"The battle commenced on the southern side, at day- 
break of the 16th. The allies charged the French line 
there six times in succession, and were as often re- 
pelled. Napoleon then charged in his turn, and with 
such effect, that Murat's cavalry were at one time in 
possession of a great gap between the two wings of 
the enemy. The Cossacks of the Eussian imperial 
guard, however, encountered the French horse, and 
pushed them back again. The combat raged without 
intermission until nightfall : three cannon shots, dis- 
charged at the extremity of either line, then marked, 
as if preconcertcdly, the pause of battle ; and both 



382 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BOISTAPARTE. 

armies bivouacked exactly where the morning light 
had found them. Such was the issue on the south, 
where Napoleon himself commanded. Marmont, his 
lieutenant on the northern side, was less fortunate. 
Blucher attacked him with a vast superiority of num-, 
bers : nothing could be more obstinate than his de- 
fense ; but he lost many prisoners and guns, was 
driven from his original ground, and occupied, when 
the day closed, a new line of positions, much nearer 
the walls of the city. 

" Gallant as the behavior of his troops had been, 
the result satisfied ISTapoleon that he must finally re- 
treat from -Leipsic ; and he now made a sincere effort 
to obtain peace. He accordingly sent a messenger 
with proposals to the allied camps, but it was now too 
late : the allied princes had sworn to each other to 
entertain no treaty while one French soldier remained 
on the eastern side of the Ehine. Napoleon received 
no answer to his message ; and prepared for the diffi- 
cult task of retreating with 100,000 men, through a 
crowded town, in presence of an enemy already twice 
as numerous, and in hourly expectation of being 
joined by a third great and victorious army. 

" During the 17th the battle was not renewed, ex- 
cept by a distant and partial cannonade. The allies 
were resolved to have the support of Bernadotte in 
the decisive contest. 

"At eight in the morning of the 18th it began, and 
continued until nightfall without intermission. Bona- 
parte had contracted on the south, as well as on the 
north, the circuit of his defense ; and never was his 
generalship, or the gallantry of his troops, more bril- 
liantly displayed than throughout this terrible day. 
Calm and collected, the emperor again presided in 
T)erson on the southern side, and again, where he was 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 883 

present, in spite of the vast superiority of the enemy's 
numbers, the French maintained their ground to the 
end. On the north, the arrival of Bernadotte enabled 
Blucher to push his advantages with irresistible effect ; 
and the situation of Marmont and Ney was further 
perplexed by the shameful defection of ten thousand 
Saxons, who went over with all their artillery to the 
enemy, in the very midst of the battle. The two 
marshals, therefore, were compelled to retire from 
point to point, and at nightfall lay almost close to the 
walls of Leipsic. Three cannon shots, as before, 
marked the general termination of the battle. 

" The loss on either side had been great. Napoleon's 
army consisted chiefly of very young men — many 
were merely boys — the produce of his fore-stalled 
conscriptions; yet they fought as bravely as the 
guard. The behavior of the Germans, on the other 
hand, at length considering their freedom and inde- 
pendence as hanging on the fortune of a single field, 
had been answerable to the deep enthusiasm of that 
thoughtful people. The burghers of Leipsic surveyed 
from their towers and steeples one of the longest, 
sternest, and bloodiest of battles ; and the situation of 
the King of Saxony, who remained all the while in the 
heart of his ancient cit}^, may be imagined. 

" Napoleon gave orders at midnight for the com- 
mencement of the inevitable retreat ; and while the 
darkness lasted, the troops continued to file through 
the town, and across the two bridges, over the Pleisse, 
beyond its walls. One of these bridges was a tempo- 
)rary fabric, and it broke down ere daylight came to 
show to the enemy the movement of the French. The 
confusion necessarily accompanying the march, of a 
whole army through narrow streets and upon a single 
bridge, was fearful. The allies stormed at the gatesf 



884 LIFE OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

on either side, and but for the heroism of Macdonald 
and Poniatowski, to whom Napoleon intrusted the de- 
fense of the suburbs, it is doubted whether he himself 
could have escaped in safety. ' At nine in the morn- 
ing of the 19th, he bade farewell forever to the King 
of Saxony, who remained to make what terms he 
could with the allied sovereigns. The battle was ere 
then raging all round the walls. 

"At eleven o'clock the allies had gathered close to 
the bridge from either wing; and the walls over 
against it had been intrusted to Saxons, who now, 
like their brethren of the day before, turned their fire 
on the French. The officer to whom Napoleon had 
committed the task of blowing up the bridge, when 
the advance of the enemy should render this neces- 
sary, conceived that the time was come, and set fire to 
his train. The crowd of men urging each other on 
the point of safety, could not at once be stopped. 
Soldiers and horses, cannons and wains, rolled head- 
long into the deep though narrow river ; which re- 
newed, though on a smaller scale, the horrors of the 
Beresina. Marshal Macdonald swam the stream in 
safety ; the gallant Poniatowski, the hope and pride 
of Poland, had been twice wounded ere he plunged 
his horse into the current, and he sunk to rise no more. 
Twenty-five thousand Frenchmen, the means of es- 
cape entirely cut off, laid down their arms within the 
city. Four sovereigns, each entering at the head of 
his own victorious army, met at noon in the great 
market-place of Leipsic : and all the exultation of that 
solemn hour would have been partaken by the inhab- 
itants, but for the fate of their own sovereign, person- 
ally esteemed and beloved, who now vainly entreated 
to be admitted to the presence of the conquerors, and 
was sent forthwith as a prisoner of war to Berlio- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 385 

"Napoleon, in killed, and wounded, and prisoners, 
lost at Leipsic at least fifty thousand men. 

" The retreat of the French through Saxony was 
accompanied wiih every disaster which a hostile 
peasantry, narrowness of supplies, and the persevering 
pursuits of the Cossacks and other light troops could 
inflict on a disordered and disheartened mass of men. 
The soldiers moved on, while under the eye of Napo- 
leon, in gloomy silence : wherever he was not pres- 
ent, they set every rule of discipline at naught, and 
were guilty of the most frightful excesses. The em- 
peror conducted himself as became a great mind amid 
great misfortunes. He appeared at all times calm and 
self-possessed ; receiving, every day that he advanced, 
new tidings of evil. 

" He halted two days at Brfurth, where extensive 
magazines had been established, employing all his en- 
ergies in the restoration of discipline ; and would have 
remained longer, had he not learned that the victors 
of Leipsic were making progress on either flank of his 
march, while the Bavarians (so recently his allies) re- 
inforced by some Austrian divisions, were moving 
rapidly to take post between him and the Ehine. He 
resumed his march, therefore, on the 24th. It was 
here that Murat quitted the army. Notwithstanding 
the unpleasant circumstances under which he had re- 
tired to Naples in ^Fanuary, Joachim had re-appeared 
when the emperor fixed his head-quarters at Dresden, 
in the summer, and served with his usual gallantry 
throughout the rest of the campaign. The state of 
Italy now demanded his presence ; ^and the two 
brothers-in-law, after all their differences, embraced 
each other warmly and repeatedly at parting — as if 
under a mutual presentiment that they were parting 
to meet no more." 

17 



386 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

Murat saw tliat tlie prestige of Napoleon was goue^ 
and to save his crown in ISTajDles, lie entered into an 
alliance with the foes of France, He immediately ap- 
peared on the arena of combined empires, against him 
who had made his fortune, and prevented by his 
opposing division, the advance of Eugene from Italy 
to aid the cause of Bonaparte. The two members of 
the imperial family met at Milan, as enemies. For 
this timely assistance, the allies promised to secure the 
throne of Naples to Murat, and his heirs ; a reward 
which was never given to the ambitious, dashing, 
vain, and unstable prince. 

The hostile armies fell on Napoleon in his retreat, 
at Haynau, and were defeated, after losing ' ten 
thousand men. A bomb-shell exploded near him, 
but he escaped unhurt — his destiny was not falfilled. 
He continued to press forward toward Paris, and at 
five o'clock, November 5th, reached St. Cloud, and 
embraced the weeping empress. It was a strange and 
humbling misfortune, which seems a part of the awful 
retribution for abandoning Josephine, and accepting 
the union with a faithless, because a royal race, that 
her father was then the most dreaded enemy of all 
the kings whose myriad host, like the Assyrians of 
ancient battle, were sweeping in concentrating circles 
upon the single captain of a decimated army. Maria 
Louisa felt the blow which had fallen from a paternal 
hand, amid the unfriendly strokes of those who had 
formed the emperor's household, and received their 
honors from him who gave thrones away to his heroes, 
as if the world, were his own. 

A revolution followed the tidings of the result at 
Leipsic, in Holland, and the exiled prince of Orange 
returned to resume the reins of government, Novem- 
ber, 1813. The Confederation of the Ehine became a . 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 887 

gossamer web before the victorious allies, and the 
states, as the only alternative, wheeled into the ranks 
of the augmenting caravan of monarchs and subjects, 
whose hjdra-folds were around the struggling Her- 
cules who still kept the world in awe. 

St. Cyr, with thirty thousand troops, who had been 
shut up in Dresden, capitulated, on the conditions of 
returning to France, and no more taking arms against 
the allied armies, until formally exchanged as prison- 
ers of war. Bat, in contempt of the stipulation, and, 
it must be confessed, in contrast with Kapoleon's 
treatment of Wurmser at Mantua seventeen years be- 
fore, the allies offered them starvation in Dresden, or 
the necessity of marching to the prisons of Austria. 
There was no sufficient excuse for this act of infidelity, 
and it was one of the lasting blots upon the banner of 
Napoleon's determined foes. Similar was the fate of 
General Eapp and his division at Dantzic. Welling- 
ton had driven the soldiers of France from S^^ain, and 
was on the territory of their sovereign. The outposts 
of power were all gone, and the wa}^ prepared to 
come down upon the citadel of strength — to march 
upon Paris itself Napoleon afterward said of this 
crisis, " Ere then I felt the reins slipping fro ni my handsj'' 
Though propositions for peace were made by Caulain- 
court in the emperor's behalf, and the banded kings 
issued at Frankfort a manifesto, the negotiations were 
no more than a passing illusion. Napoleon aroused 
himself with an amazing energy for the final contest. 
France was alive with warlike preparations. Con- 
scriptions and taxation went forward with redoubled 
vigor. The emigrant royalists, who had been allowed 
to return to France, were busy plotting ^against the 
doomed man. The priests, remembering the invasion 
of their sacred rights in the person of the Eoman 



388 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Pontiff, and the confiscation of cliurcli possessions, 
joined in tlie wide-spread conspiracies. The wily 
diplomatist, Talleyrand, anticipating the coming over- 
throw, commenced correspondence with the allies to 
secure his good fortune against ruin. The emperor 
called around him the Council of State and the Senate, 
and made his stirring appeals. But the nation was 
exhausted, and the conflicting parties growing strong 
under the shadow of his throne. To the coolness of 
the senators, who suggested that if the proposals of 
the allies had been accepted France might have been 
preserved, he replied, "Wellington has entered the 
south, the Eussians menace the northern frontier, the 
Prussians, Austrians, and Bavarians the eastern. 
Shame ! Wellington is in France, and we have not risen. 
en masse to drive him back ! All my alhes have desert- 
ed — ^the Bavarian has betrayed me. No peace till we 
have burned Munich. I demand a levy of three hundred 
thousand men — with this and what I already have, I 
shall see a million in arms. I will form a camp of one 
hundred thousand at Bourdeaux ; another at Mentz ; a 
third at Lyons. But I must have grown men — these 
boys serve only to encumber the hospitals and the road- 
sides. * * * Abandon Holland ! sooner yield it back 
to the sea ! Senators, an impulse must be given — all 
must march — ^you are fathers of families, the heads of 
the nation — you must set the example. Peace ! I hear 
of nothing but peace, when all around should echo to 
the cry of war." To the Council of State he added, 
respecting the undecided report drawn up by the 
Senate, " In place of assisting, i\\Qj impede me. Our 
attitude alone could have repelled the enemy — they 
invite him.^ We should have presented a front of 
brass — they lay open wounds to his view. 1 will not 
suffer their report to be printed. They have not done 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 389 

tteir duty, but I will do mine — I dissolve tlie legis- 
lative senate." The truth is, the last conditions of the 
allies to reduce France to her natural limits were 
humiliating; and, rather than leave the realm less 
powerful than he found it, he preferred to fight and 
conquer — or die honorably in the struggle ; or, if the 
dire necessity arose, abdicate his throne. 

December 20th, Schwartzenberg, with the gTand 
army of invasion, crossed the Ehine near Basle, enter- 
ing upon the neutral territory of Switzerland, and 
marched wdthout opposition into Burgundy. At this 
juncture, and after but little correspondence between 
Napoleon and Joseph for months, the following letters 
were written, and soon after a reconciliation was so 
far made, that frequent notes w»ere exchanged. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" December 29, 1813. 

" Sire — The violations of the Swiss territory have 
laid France open to the enemy. 

" In this state of affairs I am anxious that your 
majesty be persuaded that my heart is wholly French. 
Eecalled by circumstances to France, I should be glad 
to be of some use, and I am ready to undertake any 
thing which may prove to you my devotion. 

" I am also aware, sire, of what I owe to Spain ; 1 
see my duties, and wish to fulfill all of them. If I 
make claims, it is only for the purpose of sacrificing, 
them to the general good of mankind, esteeming my- 
self happy if by such sacrifices I can promote the 
peace of Europe. 

" I hope that your majesty may think fit to com- 
mission one of your ministers to come to an under- 
tanding on this subject with the Duke*of Santa Fe, 
my ministei for foreign affairs." 



390 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPAETE. 

NAPOLEON" TO JOSEPH. 

"December, 1813. 

" My Beother — I "have received your letter of tlie 
29 th of December. It is far too clever for tlie state 
of my affairs. I will explain it in two words. 
France is invaded, all Europe is in arms against 
France, and above all against me. You are no longer 
King of Spain. I do not want Spain eitber xo keep 
or to give away. I will have nothing more to do 
with that country, except to live in peace with it, and 
have the use of my army. What will you do ? "Will 
you, as a French prince, come to the support of my 
throne? You possess my friendship and your ap- 
anage, and will be my subject as prince of the blood. 
In this case you must act as I have done — announce 
the part which you are about to play, write to me in 
simple terms a letter which I can print, receive the 
authorities, and show yourself zealous for me and the 
King of Eome, and friendly to the regency of the 
empress. Are you unable to do this? Have you 
not good sense enough for it? Then retire to the 
obscurity of some country-house forty leagues from 
Paris. You wnll live there quietly if I live ; you will 
be killed or arrested if I die. You will be useless to 
me, to our family, to your daughters, and to France ; 
but you will do me no harm^ and will not be in my 
way. Choose quickly the line which you will take." 

Ferdinand was restored to power ; of whom ISTapier 
says, " an effeminate, superstitious, fawning slave at 
Yalencay, and now, after six years' captivity, he re- 
turned to his own country an ungrateful, cruel tyrant." 
January 1st, 1814, Blucher passed the Ehine ; and 
the third division of an army, numbering a million 
of troops, under Witzengerode and Bulow, crossed the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. '691 

frontier of Netherlands. The wealthy citizens flew to 
Paris with the news of the darkening storm over 
hitherto prond, victorions France. 

January 24th, Napoleon held a grand levee in the 
saloon of the Tuilleries. Nine hundred of&cers and 
dignitaries gathered in splendid array around the em- 
peror, with the subdued aspect of a grave and anxious 
assembly. Napoleon appeared in the centre of the 
hall, accompanied by Maria Louisa, and the beautiful 
boy, for whom so fearful a sacrifice had been made. 
After bestowing the regency on the empress, he said 
with the firm and thrilling tones of an ever-eloquent 
voice, " Grentlemen, France is invaded ; I go to put 
myself at the head of my troops, and, with God's help 
and their valor, I hope soon to drive the enemy be- 
yond the frontier." Here he took Maria Louisa in one 
hand and her son in the other, and continued — " But 
if they should approach the capital, I confide to the 
national guard, the empress and the king of Rome" — 
then correcting himself, he said in a tone of strong 
emotion — " my wife and my childy 

Tears gushed from veteran eyes ; they were shed 
by many who cherished no strong attachment for Na- 
poleon. Officers immediately advanced from the silent 
and imposing circle, as pledges of the protection de- 
sired for the trembling queen, and her dreaming child. 
The hour of peril had brought from obscurity friends 
who had lived apart from Napoleon's career. Carnot, 
who so boldly opposed the stride to imperial power, 
came forward, and ofiered his sword to the emperor. 
With characteristic appreciation of pre-eminent talent 
and noble qualities, he gave him the command of the 
important city and fortress of Antwerp. 

January 25, while the snow was falling, suggestive 
of past disasters, Napoleon having given his private 



392 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

papers to the flames, and embraced liis wife and child 
for the last time, left Paris for the field of battle. 
Joseph was again in the capital at the head of the 
council, and next in of&cial station to the empress. 

ISTapoleon reached St. Dizier, a hundred miles from, 
Paris, on the 27th, and there met with a small force, 
the Cossacks of Blucher's army. A brief struggle fol- 
lowed, and the French were victorious. The main 
columns of the Prussians were at Brienne on the 
Aube — the town where the genius of Napoleon re- 
ceived its earliest military culture. Could the em- 
peror drive Blucher from this position, he would then 
lie between two great divisions of the overshadowing 
enemy, weakening their strength, and giving him the 
advantage of his inimitable mode of warfare — falling 
on separate masses of his enemy, like the successive 
shocks of the earthquake which lays the city in ruins. 
The 28th he marched in the face of a tempest, and 
through the snow, rekindling the enthusiasm of his 
soldiers, and receiving the warmest expressions of 
self-sacrifice and devotion from the humblest peasantry. 
The next day, he stood before the bristling castle and 
heights of Brienne, with twenty thousand men, op- 
posed by sixty thousand Eussians in this stronghold, 
whose presence thronged memory with bitter recol- 
lections. The sudden tramp of the French battalions 
before the gates, startled Blucher from his wine at the 
dinner-table of the chateau, and he made his escape 
through a postern, leading his horse down a stair-way. 
A bloody fight began, and when twilight deepened 
over the crimson hills, five thousand of the allies were 
slain. General Grourgauc shot a Cossack when point- 
ing his spear at the back of the emperor — a moment 
more, and Brienne would have witnessed the close, as 
it did the dawn, of his career. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 893 

Napoleon gives a grapliic account of these events : 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 
"Bkienne, January 31, 1814; in the evening. 

" The bulletin will have informed you of the events 
which have taken place. The engagement at Brienne 
was very hot. I have lost three thousand men, and 
the enemy's loss amounts to between four thousand 
and five thousand. I pursued him half-way to Bar- 
sur-Aube. I have repaired the bridges over the Aube 
which were burnt. In another instant General Blu- 
cher and the whole of his staff would have been taken. 
The nephew of the Chancellor of Hardenberg, who 
was close to them, was taken. They were on foot, 
and did not know that I was with the army. 

Since the battle of Brienne the allies have had great 
respect for our army. They did not believe we had 
any. I have reason to think, although I am not cer- 
tain, that the Duke of Vicenza has reached the em- 
peror's head-quarters at Chaumout. This affair of 
Brienne, the position of our armies, and the opinion 
which is entertained of them, may hasten the peace. It 
is advisable that the newspapers should describe Paris 
as determined to defend itself, and should announce 
large numbers of troops as arriving from every quarter. 

" I have ordered a column of from one thousand to 
two thousand horses belonging to the guard, two 
pieces of cannon, three or four infantry wagons, and 
between three thousand and four thousand men of the 
young guard, altogether a column of from four thou- 
sand to five thousand men, to leave Paris. To these 
should be joined a company of the baggage-train be- 
longing to the guard, if there is one ready. This 
column is to proceed toward Nogent and Fismes, 
where it will wait fur further orders. The Dake of 

17* 



S9-i LIFE OF iSTAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

Treviso had evacuated Troyes in order to advance 
upon Arcis-sur-Aube ; but I desired him to return to 
Troyes, and be arrived there this evening at seven 
o'clock. It is very important to reinforce as soon as 
possible the division which is at Troyes." 

Blucher retreated along the Aube to La Rothiere, 
nine miles from Brienne, where Schwartz enberg, in- 
cited by the thunder of artillery, joined him. Febru- 
ary 1st, Blucher opened the conflict, which raged all 
day with frightful ferocity. The eagles of France 
were struck down, and leaving five thousand of his 
soldiers mangled on the frozen plain, Napoleon fled 
toward Troyes. This second battle of Brienne, is 
called by French writers, the battle of La Eothiere ; in 
which Napoleon's advanced guard was posted. 

The allies now definitely arranged a conference for 
the consideration of peace. The emperor informs 
Joseph of its character: 

NAPOLEOlSr TO JOSEPH. 

"PiNEY,* February 2d, 1814. 

" It seems that the allies have fixed the 3d of Feb- 
ruary for opening the congress at Chatillon ; that Lord 
Castlereagh and half a dozen other Englishmen will 
negotiate for England, M. de Stadion for Austria, *M. 
de Humboldt for Prussia, and Easumouski for Eussia. 
It appears that the allies feared lest the arrival of the 
Duke of Vicenza at their head-quarters might develop 
and mature the seeds of disunion already existing 
among them. They preferred to hold the congress 
at a distance from their head-quarters. I shall be at 
Troyes to morrow." 

'^ A village half way between Brienne and Troyes. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEOX BONAPARTE. 395 

He arrived at Troyes on the 3d, and remained 
there three days ; during which, Joseph dispatched a 
message containing the following significant passage : 

" The public mind was depressed to-daj^, and I had 
great trouble in keeping up the spirits of many people. 
I have seen the empress twice, and when I left her 
last night she was more composed ; she had just re- 
ceived a letter from your majesty in which you men- 
tion the congress. 

" If 3' our majesty should meet with serious reverses, 
what form of government ought to be left here in 
order to prevent intriguers from putting themselves 
at the head of the first movement? Jerome asks me 
what should be his conduct in such a case? Men are 
coming in, but we want money to clothe them. Count 
Daru can obtain only 10,000 fr. a day from the Treas- 
ury ; this delaj's terribly the departure of the troops. 
There are here two battalions of National Guards." 

The emperor with gleams of hope, and a faithful 
army, lived conlinually under the shadow of fear for 
his capital. In a reply to his brother he betrays his 
anxiety : " Take away from Fontainebleau all valu- 
ables, and above all every thing which might serve as 
a trophy, without, however, unfurnishing the chateau 
too much ; it is useless to leave in it plate or any thing 
that can be easily removed. I am writing to La 
Bfluillerie to desire him to hold a million francs at 
your disposal, to hasten the clothing and equipment 
of the troops." 

He gave orders to "hold firmly the batteries of 
Paris," to watch the three points of approach, and arm 
wdth fowling-pieces and pikes, reserves for defense. 

He complains that "the bad sjoirit of such men as 
Talleyrand, who endeavored to paralyse the nation, 
prevented him from having early recourse to arms," 



396 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

the consequence of wliicli was the doubtful crisis of 
national affairs. His efforts to quiet the popular feel- 
ing were constant, and he resorted to any form of 
deception to attain the object. From Nogent, on the 
Seine, to which he had advanced, he directed Joseph 
to "insert in the Moniteur an article, headed Cha— 
tillon-sur-Seine, saying that on the 6th the members 
of the congress dined with the Diike of Yicenza; that 
it is remarked that all the embassadors are on terms of 
the greatest politeness, especially those of France and 
England, who are full of attentions for each other." 

The correspondence given at length, presents a vivid 
picture of the crowding events of this reign of terror, 
and exhibits the character of actors on the world-excit- 
ing stage of royal contest. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" Paris, February T, 1814 ; 11 p. m. 

" Sire — I have received 3^our majesty's two letters 
of yesterday. I have seen and written to the Duke of 
Yalmy. He starts to-night for Meaux. He showed 
me a letter from the Duke of Taranto, dated the 6th. 
He was still at Epernay, and had heard nothing from 
your majesty for four days. He had abandoned 
Chalons after defending it for some time. Th^ artil- 
lery was directed on Meaux. The enemy had entered 
Sezanne. The intendant and the public treasure had 
escaped falling into the hands of the enemy. 

"I inclose the exact route of the 9th infantry 
division of the army of Spain. 

"I have sent an aide-de-camp along the Chalons 
road by way of Yitry. 

"The minister of war tells me that he sent two 
thousand muskets to Montereau this morning. 

"I have spoken to Louis about leading him here; 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 397 

he has written to me a long letter on the subject. I 
have determined on forwarding it to your majesty. I 
believe that your majesty told me that the princesses 
were to accompany the empress. If this should not be 
the case, I ought to have positive orders on the sub- 
ject. I am most anxious that the departure of the 
empress should not take place. We can not disguise 
from ourselves the fact that the consternation and 
despair of the people may lead to sad and even fatal 
consequences. I think, and so do all persons whose 
opinion is of value, that we should be prepared to 
make many sacrifices before resorting to this extrem- 
ity. The men who are attached to your majesty's 
government fear that the departure of the empress will 
abandon the people of Paris to despair, and give a 
capital and an empire to the Bourbons. Although I 
express the fear which I see on every face, your 
majesty may rest assured that your orders will be 
faithfally executed by me as soon as 1 receive them. 

" I have spoken to General Caffarelli on the subject 
of Fontainebleau, and to M. do la Bouillerie about the 
million for the war and the removal of the treasure.* 
I do not know how far your majesty may approve of 

* The treasure in the hands of M. de la Bouillerie was gradually 
accumulated by Napoleon out of the contributions which he imposed on 
conquered towns, and out of the sale or the revenues of the domains 
belonging to the sovereigns whom he deposed or robbed. It was com- 
pletely at his disposal, but was employed by him only for military pur- 
poses. Not much is known as to its extent, or as to the mode in which 
it finally disappeared ; but the general opinion is, that at the beginning 
of 1814 it amounted to about 150,000,000 of francs, and that about, 
110,000,000 of it were spent on the army before the expulsion 
of Napoleon. "When that event happened about 40,000,000 of this 
treasure are supposed to have remained. It fell into the hands of 
the government which succeeded him, but was never accounted for ; 
one or two of the great fortunes of the Restoration are suspected ta 
have been created out of it. — Tn. 



S98 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

mj observations, but I must say that I tbink it im- 
portant to paj a montb's salary to the great dig- 
nitaries, ministers, counseillers d'etat, and senators. 
Several bave been mentioned to me who are really in 
distress, and, in the event of their departure becoming 
expedient, it is thought that many will be detained in 
Paris for want of the means of traveling. 

" Marshal Brune has called on me ; I was not able 
to see him. I have no doubt that he came to offer his 
services. I should like to know your majesty's wishes 
on the subject. 

"Jerome is annoyed that your majesty has not yet 
explained your intentions as to the request which I 
made for him in two of my former letters.* 

"I am told that M. de la Fayette was one of the 
first grenadiers of the national guard on duty at the 
Hotel de Ville. 

" The barriers will be completely fortified to-mor- 
row, and we shall begin to send artillery thither. 

" Greneral Caffarelli answered to the Duke of Coneg- 
liano that he had not yet received a reply from the 
Grand Marshal of the Palace to his request for per- 
mission to place twenty-five national guards at the 
Tuilleries. 

" P. S.- — ^I have received your majesty's letter, dated 
to-day, from Nogent. I have already ordered its 
directions to be followed, and I will keep you majesty 
informed during the progress of their execution. 

" The courier Eemy will be the bearer of this letter." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" NOQENT, February 8, 1814 ; 11 A. M. 

"My Brother — I have received your letter of the 
7th, 11 p. M. It surprised me extremely. I have 

* Joseph had proposed that he should be employed. — Tr. 



LIFE OF NAP0LE01<r BONAPARTE. 399 

answered you on the event of Paris,* that you may not 
ask me any more about what is to follow it — a matter 
which interests more persons than me. When that 
happens I shall be no more, consequently it is not for 
myself that I speak. I told you that the movements 
of the empress and the King of Eome, and the I'est of 
our family, must be governed by circumstances, and 
you have not understood me. Be sure that, if the 
event takes place, what I have prophesied will cer- 
tainly follow ; I am persuaded that she herself has the 
same expectation.-}* 

" King Louis talks of peace. His advice is ill- 
timed ; in fact, I can understand nothing in your 
letter. I thought that I had explained myself to 
yoU; but you never recollect any thing, and you are 
of the opinion of the first comer and of the last 
speaker. 

" I repeat, then, in two words, Paris will never be 
occupied while I am alive. I have a right to be be- 
lieved if I am understood. 

"I will admit that, if through unforeseen circum- 
stances, I should march toward the Loire, I should not 
leave the empress and my son at a distance from me, 
because, whatever happened, they might both be car- 
ried off to Vienna ; this would be still more likely to 
take place if I were not alive. I can not make out 

* If Napoleon refers to any of the letters now published, they must 
be the two of the 6th of February. But neither of these letters men- 
tions the empress or the King of Rome. Perhaps he refers to viva voce 
instructions. 

It is to be observed that he never mentions the capture of Paris in 
direct terms. Here he alludes to it as "I'evenement de Paris." In hia 
first letter of the 6th he calls it "Dans des momeats ex-traordinaires ;" 
in the second "Dans tout evenement imprevu."— -Tr. 

•j- This seems to be an allusion to something that passed in eonversa' 
tion.— Tr. 



400 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

how, with all these intrigues going on around you, 
you can bestow such imprudent praise upon the 
proposals of traitors, who are incapable of giving 
honorable advice : never employ them, even in the 
most favorable circumstances. Besides, no one is 
bound to do what is impossible. I can no longer 
pay any of my officers : I have nothing. 

" I own that I am annoyed by your letter of the 
7th, 11 P.M., because I see that there is no coherence 
in your ideas, and that you allow yourself to be in- 
fluenced by the chattering and the opinions of a set 
of people who never reflect. Yes, I will talk to you 
openly. If Talleyrand has any thing to do with the 
project of leaving the empress in Paris in case of 
the approach of the enemy, it is treachery. I repeat, 
distrust that man. I have dealt with him for the last 
sixteen years ; once I even liked him ; • but he is un- 
doubtedly the greatest enemy to our house since it 
has been abandoned by fortune. Keep to my advice. 
I know more than all those people. If we are beaten 
and I am killed, you will hear of it before the rest of 
my family. Send the empress and the King of Eoipe 
to Eambouillet ; order the senate, the conseil-d'etat, 
and all the troops, to assemble on the Loire : leave 
in Paris a prefect, or an imperial commission, or some 
mayors. 

" I have told you* that Madamef and the Queen 
of Westphalia:}: may remain in Paris in Madame's 
house. If the Yiceroy has returned to Paris, he may 
also stay there ; but on no account let the empress 
and the King of Eome fall into the hands of the 
enemy. 

" Be certain that, from that moment, Austria, the 

* Appareatly in conversation. — Te. f Napoleon's mother. — Tiv 

:j: Jerome's wife. — Tr. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 401 

band which connected her with France being broken,* 
would carry her off to Vienna, and give her a large 
apanage ; and, on pretense of securing the happiness 
of the empress, the French would be forced to do 
whatever England and Russia might dictate. Every 
[national] party would thus be destroyed, for * * * f ; 
instead of which, in the other case, the national feel- 
ings of the numbers whose interest it would be to 
rebel, make it impossible to foresee the result.:}: 

" However, it may happen that I beat the enemy 
on his approach to Paris, and that none of these 
things may take place. It is also possible that I may 
make peace in a few days. But, at all events, it ap- 
pears from your letter of the 7th, 11 p.m., that you 
have no means of defense. Your judgment in these 
matters is always at fault ; your very principles are 
wrong. It is for the interest even of Paris that the 
empress and the King @f Eome should not remain 
there, because its welfare depends on their safety ; and 
since the world has existed, I ha\'e never heard of a 
sovereign allowing himself to be taken in any open 
town. This would be the first instance. 

" The. unfortunate King of Saxony has just reached 
France; he is beginning to lose his happy illusions. 

'' In difficult and critical circumstances a man does 
his duty, and leaves the rest to take its course. If I 
should happen to live, I ought to be, and I have no 
doubt that I shall be, obeyed ; if I die, my son, as 
sovereign, and the empress as regent, must not, for 
the honor of the French, allow themselves to be 
taken ; they must retreat to the last village. 

* The words of the text are, " I'Autriche etant desinteressee." I 
think that this is their meaning. — Tr. 

f Illegible.— Ed. 

^ The loss of the first part of this sentence renders the second part 
ohscure. — Tr. 



402 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

"Eemember wliat was said bj the wife of Philip V. 
What, indeed, would be said of the empress ? That 
she had abandoned our throne and that of her son. 
Nothing would better please the allies than to make 
an end of every thing by carrying them off prisoners 
to Vienna. I am surprised that you do not see this. 
I see that fear has turned all your heads in Paris, 

" The empress and the King of Eome, once at 
Vienna, or in the hands of our enemies, you and all 
others who attempted a defense would be rebels. 

" As for me, I would rather they would kill my 
son than see him brought up at Vienna as an Aus- 
trian prince, and I think well enough of the empress 
to believe that she is of the same opinion, as far as 
that is possible to a woman and a mother. . 

" I have never seen Andromaque acted without 
pitying the fate of Astyanax in surviving the rest of 
his house, nor without thinking that it would have 
been a blessing for him if he had died before his 
father. 

" You do not understand the French nation. It is 
impossible to foresee the ultimate result of such great 
events as these. 

"As for Louis, I think that he ought to follbw 
you." 

The only letter written by the empress which ap- 
pears up to this date possesses interest, as revealing the 
affectionate nature of the Austrian successor to the 
peerless Josephine • 

MARIE LOUISE TO JOSEPH. 

Pabis, February 8th, 1814. 

" My Dear Brother — I received last night a let- 
ter from the emperor, dated the 6th. He tells me 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 403 

that lie is well, and that circumstances, althougli they 
are difficult, have improved during the last week. He 
desires me not to be anxious^ you know that this is 
impossible. If you have any details, it will be very 
kind in you to send them to me. You see, my dear 
brother, from my teasing you in this way, the confi- 
dence which I have in your friendship and patience. 
I entreat you to believe in the friendship of your af 
fectionate sister." 

The want of muskets was the fatal difficulty in the 
way of defending Paris. The Eussian war had made 
an enormous waste of arms, and it had been impos- 
sible in so brief a period to supply the deficiency. 
Multitudes, who asked for weapons, were denied. 
But for this the capital might have been secure. 

The ex-King of Spain, in a further communication, 
alluded to a proposed order by the empress for public 
prayers and religious ceremonies, in a manner that 
discloses the unrest of the Catholic population, and 
also the magazine of feeling, which a spark might 
kindle into a conflagration. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

"Paris, February 8, 1814; niidnight. 

" Sire — I have desired M. de la Bouillerie to make 
arrangements which will enable him, if I desire him 
to leave Paris with the treasure, to set off in six hours 
after receiving the order. He has, therefore, been 
obliged to load some fourgons, and to house them in 
the court of the Grand Ecuyer on the Carousal. This 
was effected in the night, and the officers on guard 
in the palace alone can have been aware of it. The 
director of the Museum came to-day to tell me that 
it ought to be shut up, and the things of most value 



404: LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

sent out of Paris, unless I gave iiim • orders to the 
contrary. As yonr majesty lias given none to me, I 
could give none to hiq?. If I should receive any 
from your majesty, I will communicate tliem -without 
delay. 

"It appears to me, sire, that the proposed solemnity 
at St. Genevieve will not have a good effect. The 
public is already so depressed, and so inclined to trust 
to accidents for its defense, that we ought not to in- 
crease its inactivity by telling it to hope for safety 
from religious intercession. I may add, that to the 
incredulous these prayers would be a mere ceremony, 
or an avowal of danger and of distrust in our own 
exertions. With respect to the good Catholics, your 
majesty may rest assured that the government will 
obtain nothing from them till you are publicly recon- 
ciled to the vicar of Jesus Christ. No, sire, in France 
none are truly religious but those who acknowledge 
the Pope as their spiritual hftad. The rest are not 
Catholics, but unbelievers or Protestants. Therefore, 
till I see in the Moniteur, ' The Pope has returned 
to Eome ; the emperor has ordered him to be prop- 
erly escorted and received there,' I do not think that 
any religious ceremony would produce an impression 
on the Catholics in your majesty's favor. This, sire, 
is the truth. The empress is in better spirits to-day. 
I have passed the day in sustaining the hopes of peo- 
ple who have much less self-possession than belongs 
to her majesty." 

Napoleon approved the suggestion, and the appeal 
to the religious element was abandoned. 

Like the flames of a burnings forest around a soli- 

O 

tary clearing, the foes of France, with the fire of bat- 
tle, girdled the interior of France, and swept onward 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 405 

toward Paris and the throne. The emperor desired 
peace, and gave Caulaincourt fall powers " to keep 
the negotiations alive, and save the capital." On the 
8th the Duke of Vicenza proposed a treaty on the 
basis of the ancient limits of France which were the 
frontier before 1789, and nearly its present boundary; 
while the " natural limits" were the Alps, the I*yrenees 
and the Rhine. Napoleon consented to sign these 
conditions, as a subsequent letter will disclose, if the 
allies would immediately cease hostilities. This they 
refused to do, and the conference closed. They de- 
clared that signing preliminaries would not close the 
war — the treaty must be definitely settled. Mean- 
while, Joseph wrote earnestly in behalf of peace. 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

"Paris, February 9th, 1814; 11 a.m. 
" Sire — I have received your letters of the 8th at 
8 P.M. I have sent the one to the empress Josephine, 
and I am expecting an answer by Tascher. After the 
cabinet council I will see MM. de Feltre and d'Hau- 
terive. The Minister of war has written to me a let- 
ter which I send on to your majesty ; you will see 
that our muskets are reduced to six thousand. It 
is, therefore, useless to expect to form a reserve 
of from thirty to forty thousand men in Paris. 
Things are stronger than men, sire ; and when this is 
clearly proved, it seems to me that trae glory consists 
in preserving as much as possible of one's people and 
one's empire ; and that to expose a precious life to 
such evident danger is not glorious, because it is 
against the interests of a great number of men whose 
existence is attached to your own. Your majesty 
may rest assured that I shall faithfully execute your 
f.orninands, whatever they may be. No one here hcu 



406 LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 

any ibing, directly or indirectly, to do "with wliat I am 
writing to your majesty in perfect openness, just as 
it occurs to me. 

"I see so much depression, that I fear that it is 
useless to expect an army of reserve, or any extraor- 
dinary effort to be made in Paris : you must, there- 
fore, submit with fortitude to necessity ; whether you 
are permitted to make a great nation happy, or you 
are forced to yield, there being no choice left except 
between death and dishonor ; and, at this juncture, I 
see no dishonor for your majesty, unless you abandon 
the throne, because in this case you would ruin a 
number of individuals who have devoted themselves 
to you. If it be possible, then, make peace at any 
price ; if that is impossible, when the hour comes we 
must meet death with resolution, as did the last Em- 
peror of ConMantinople. 

"Should this occur, j^^our majesty may be per- 
suaded that I shall in every respect follow out your 
wishes, and that I shall do nothiDg unworthy either 
of you or of me." 

The Silesian army, in four divisions, under Blu- 
cher, Sacken, D'York and Alsusief, was marching on 
Paris down the Marne, and also along another road 
across the marshy country by Yertus, Etoges and 
Montmirail. The allied grand army, commanded by 
Schwartzenberg, whose head-quarters were at Troyes, 
was moving toward the capital through the valley of 
the Seine. Napoleon, at Nogent, upon the latter 
river, was between the two armies, and on the 9th 
designed, by a flank movement to Sezanne, to attack 
Blucher, while separated from the other portion of 
the invading host. Unexpectedly at Baye he encoun- 
tered a division of the enemy, and, after a fierce oon- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 407 

test, defeated it, and readied Sezanne the same day. 
"The next day, the 10th, he beat Alsusief at Champ- 
Aubert ; on the 11th he defeated Sacken at Montmi- 
rail ; on the 12th he defeated York at Chateau- 
Thierry, and, finding that Blucher was advancing, 
he turned back to Montmirail^ and on the 14:th de- 
feated him with great loss At Yauchamps, a villago 
between Montmirail and Etoges, and drove him back 
through Etoges to Chalons. 

" But Schwartzenberg was profiting by Napoleon's 
absence to march on Paris by the Seine. lie drove 
Victor out of Nogent, occupied Monterau, and pene- 
trated beyond Nangis to Mormant, a village not more 
than twenty-five miles from Paris. Three marshals, 
Oudinot, Yictor, and Macdonald, were opposed to him 
with a force of about forty-seven thousand men, but 
they appear to have expected defeat, and earnestly 
implored Napoleon's presence. Napoleon left Mont- 
mirail on the 15tb, a few hours after he had defeated 
Blucher, reached Meaux the same day, and on the 
16th joined his marshals at Guignes, a small town at 
the intersection of the roads from Meaux to Melun, 
and from Paris to Nogent. On the 17th he drove the 
Eussians, under Count Pahlen, from Mormant, and 
entered Nangis, and on the 18th he drove the Prince 
of Wirtemberg out of Monterau, and marched on 
Troyes, from v/hence the allied sovereigns and 
Schwartzenberg fled in terror, and scarcely paused 
until they found themselves more than one hundred 
miles off at Langres. In nine days he gained seven 
victories, made nine marches in the depth of winter, 
most of them over cross-roads, such as the crossroads 
of France then were, and drove away or frightened 
away two armies, each much larger than his own. 

" It is not surprising that such wonderful success, 



408 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

immediately following two years of almost unintei- 
rupted disaster, somewhat intoxicated him, and led 
him to believe that the chances were again in his 
i^vor, and even to imagine that the allies themselves 
had little hope of escaping with many of their troops 
from France." 

The general feeling and the condition of affairs at 
the capital during these triumphs, are fully and for- 
cibly portrayed in the words of the chief of the council 
of state : 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

" Paris, February 11, 1814 ; 1 A. M. 

" Sire — I did not recive your letter dated Sezanne, 
the 10th, 10 A. M,, till to-day at seven. I have dis- 
patched a courier to inform Marshal Macdonald of 
your majesty' arrival at Champ- Aubert, on the rear of 
tlie enemy's column, then at Montmirail, 

"Nothing remarkable is going on here. The public 
mind continues in the same state. The wives and 
children of many of the principal public functionaries 
have left the capital. The rise in the funds which 
took place yesterday is attributed to a letter from the 
Duke of Yicenza, giving hopes of the negotiations ter- 
minating favorably. Every one is persuaded that 
our affairs can be re-established in no other way ; the 
state of the exchequer and the arsenals is known to 
all the world ; and whatever prodigies may yet be ex- 
pected from the experience and skill of your majesty, 
it is not thought possible that you can struggle alone 
against number? and circumstances. The ministers have 
doubtless already informed your majesty that one of 
the Bourbons has joined Lord Wellington's army, and 
that another is in Holland. Many sick have arrived 
here. Money is wanting to pay the troops ; they com- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 409 

mit in consequence all sorts of irregularities, which 
exasperate the inhabitants to such a degree (I can 
speak chiefly of those of Versailles, Compiegne, and 
Senlis), that it is not uncommon to hear it said pub- 
licly, ' The enemy could not do worse.' 

" I do not write these disagreeable truths to your 
majesty for the sake of persuading you to make peace 
— I know that you desire it more than any other per- 
son — but in order to console you, if you should be 
forced to submit to conditions to which France would 
not be reduced, if the strength of mind of all her peo- 
ple^ were in proportion to that of her sovereign. I en- 
treat your majesty to believe that my language to the 
rest of the world is very different ; but I am obliged 
to own that there is no salvation for us but in the 
speediest peace, on whatever conditions. I know no 
one who is of a contrary opinion. Your majesty's 
most faithful servants are chiefly distinguished by their 
profound conviction that, with peace, your majesty 
will find in your own genius, and in the confidence of 
the nation, means to restore our affairs," 

Again the negotiations for peace were opened, but 
Napoleon refused to sign an armistice on the former 
terms of treaty. His circumstances had greatly changed, 
and instead of a willingness to obtain a cessation of 
hostilities upon the humbling conditions of the " ancient 
limits," according to the earnest desire of his brother 
and other leading minds at Paris, he demanded a re- 
treat from his dominions. The whole course of mo- 
mentous events at this decisive time, is given in the 
unreserved utterance of the emperor's policy in his 
correspondence. The fact, which some historians 
warmly dispute, that he identified himself and his 
family with the glory of France, with an unrivaled 

18 



410 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

ambition, appears from his own confession. It is 
equally evident that under the power of royal associ- 
ations, and fearing the spreading influence of a new 
man^ both in his system of government, and contempt 
of the "divine right" of kings, England with her 
allies was resolved, at every sacrifice of treasure and 
blood, to crush Napoleon, and restore the indolent, 
worthless Bourbons to the throne of France. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"Nanois, February 18, 1814. 

" My Brother — Prince Schwartzenberg has at last 
shown signs of life. He has just sent a flag of truce 
to ask for a suspension of hostilities. It is hard to be 
dastardly to such a degree. He constantly, in the 
most insulting terms, rejected every species of suspen- 
sion of arms or armistice ; and after the capitulation 
of Dantzic and that of Dresden he refused even to re- 
ceive my flags of truce, a barbarity of which there are 
few examples in history. On the first repulse these 
wretches are on their knees. Happily the Prince of 
Schwartzenberg's aid-de-camp was not allowed to come 
within our posts. I received only his letter, which I 
shall answer at my leisure. I shall not grant any 
armistice till I have cleared my territory of them. 
From what I hear, the allies seem to have quite 
changed their minds. The Emperor of Eussia, who, a 
few days ago, broke off the negotiations, because he 
wished to impose upon France worse conditions than 
those of our ancient limits, wishes now to renew them ; 
and I hope that I may soon attain a peace founded on 
the terms of Fi^ankfort, which are the lowest I could 
accept with honor."^' Before I began my last opera- 

* The terms offered by tlie allies from Frankfort were what the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 411 

tions, I offered to sign on the basis of tlie ancient 
limits, provided thej would cease hostilities immedi- 
ately. This proposal was made by the Duke of Vicenza 
on the 8th. They refused. They said that even the 
signature of preliminaries would not put a stop to 
hostilities ; that the war should last till all the articles 
of peace were signed. They have been punished for 
this inconceivable answer, and yesterday, on the 17th, 
asked for an armistice I 

" You may well imagine that on the eve of a battle* 
which I was resolved to win, or to perish, when, if I 
failed, my capital was taken, I would then have con- 
sented to any thing rather than run so great a risk. I 
owed this sacrifice of my pride to my family and to my 
people. But since they refused these terms ; since the 
danger has been encountered ; since every thing has 
returned to the ordinary risks of war ; since a defeat 
no longer exposes my capital ; since all the chances 
are for me, the welfare of the empire and my own 
fame require me to make a real peace. If I had signed 
on the terms of the ancient limits, I should have rushed 
to arms in two years, and I should have told the na- 
tion that I had signed not a peace, but a capitulation. 
I could not say this in present circumstances, for, as 
fortune is again on my side, I can impose my own 
conditions. The enemy is in a very different position 
from that which he occujDied when he made the Frank- 
fort propositions ; he must now feel almost certain that 
few of his troops\will recross the frontier. His cavalry 
is worn out and low ; his infantry is exhausted by 

French have called the " natural limits" of France, namely, the Alps, 
the Pyrenees, and the Rhine. 

The term "ancient limits" signifies the frontier of France before 1189, 
and with slight mo iifi cations, her present frontier. — Tr. 

* Napoleon uses tlie word battle to signify his whole connected opera 
liona against Blucher. — Tr. 



412 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

marches and counter-marches; he has lost all heart. 
I hope, therefore, to make a peace such as will satisfy 
a reasonable man ; and I. wish for no more than the 
conditions of Frankfort. Whisper that the enemy 
finding himself embarrassed, has asked for an armis- 
tice, or a suspension of hostilities, which was absurd, 
as it would have deprived me of the fruit of my opera- 
tions : add that this shows how thoroughly he is dis- 
heartened. Do not let this be printed, but let it be 
repeated in every quarter." 

Napoleon in vain looked for a more yieldmg spirit 
in the enemy. A second " expedition of the Marne" 
was the plan of the tireless, ubiquitous genius of the 
man who has no equal in the energies of body and 
mind, and the amazing versatility of his talent. On 
the 18th- he met and conquered two divisions of the 
enemy near Moatereau, and secured the bridge on the 
, Seine. His exposure of his person was never surpassed 
by the commonest soldier. The next day was spent 
in erecting bridges, and crossing an almost impassable 
defile ; in the midst of which he wrote : " The em- 
peror of Kussia and the King of Prussia were at Bray. 
As soon as they heard that I had forced the bridge of 
Montereau, they ran away as fast as they could. Their 
whole army is terrified. The three sovereigns spent a 
few days at Pont, with Madame. They intend to 
reach Fontainebleau to-morrow, and in a very few 
days, Paris : they can not understand what is taking 
place. To-day we have snow, and the weather is 
rather severe. I am sending an article for the Moni- 
teur to the empress, but you may put into the Moniieur, 
as well as into the other newspapers, under the head 
of Provins, a notice of the precipitation with which the 
sovereigns quitted Bray". The Austrians protected 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 413 

,my palace at Fontaineblea.u from the Cossacts. We 
have taken several convoys of baggage and some car- 
riages going toward Bray. Several hundred Cossacks 
have been taken in the forest of Fontainebleau. My 
advanced guard will reach Bray to-morrow." 

As indicated in this language, Napoleon resorted 
now to the system of terror. Oudinot and Macdonald 
were ordered to march against Schwartzenberg, and the 
troops were to shout "Vive I'Empereur!" when in the 
hearing of the hostile forces, to convey the impression 
that the mighty commander was himself advancing. 
From Montereau Najioleon marched to Nogent, thence 
by way of Chartres to Troy es, with no battles excepting 
a hot and profitless skirmish with Blucher atMery, the 
result of unforeseen proximity. There was during the 
close of February a pause in the emperor's movements, 
for the twofold reason that peace was possible, and 
the preceding campaign, distinguished for intensity of 
action, made repose desirable. Orleans became terri- 
fied at the approach of a small force, and he dictated 
a thrilling appeal to arm and meet the assault, which 
was to be read in the name of the empress. He di- 
rected placards of the enemy's atrocities to be scat- 
tered through Paris ; and nothing overlooked which 
might arouse the people to the final struggle. Joseph 
meanwhile was writing sad news of the popular un- 
rest, the rise of Bourbon sympathy at Amiens, 'the 
crumbling administration; and urging peace. In 
dwelling on these alarming facts, he adds, with sub- 
dued expressions of encouragement : " The people of 
Paris, hostile to the government a month ago, touched 
by your majesty's confidence in trusting your wife and 
3^our son to them, encouraged and astonished by your 
mnjesty's successes, are yet not in a state in which 
more than mere fidelity and obedience can be expected 



414: LIFE OF NAPOLEOX BON"APARTE. 

Thej admire your genius, but they can be excited 
only by the hope of a speedy peace, and they are by 
uo means inclined to oppose any effective resistance to 
a hostile army, or to send detachments of the national 
guard beyond the walls. This, sire, is the exact 
truth. Your majesty must not rely on an exertion 
greater than can fairly be expected from a population 
so disposed." 

Augereau failed, at this crisis, with a strange and 
unaccountable disregard of orders, to attack the allies 
in flank, and march on to Geneva to cut off their com- 
munications; which contributed largely to the ulti- 
mate disaster. At the moment Napoleon was expect- 
ing the marshal to meet Borghese at Chambry, he was 
exulting in the success of stratagem, which he thus 
announced in a dispatch : " Terror reigns in the ranks 
of the enemy. A few days ago they thought that I 
had no army ; now their imagination sticks at nothing ; 
three hundred thousand or four hundred thousand 
men are not enough for them. They fancied that I 
had none but recruits ; thej'- now say that I have col- 
lected all my veterans, and that my armies consist of 
picked men ; that the French army is better than ever, 
etc. See what is the effect of terror. The Parisian 
newspapers must confirm their fears. Newspapers 
are not history, any more than bulletins are history : 
ong should always persuade the enemy that one's 
forces are immense." 

He also took advantage of the neglect of the allies 
to confirm the treaty with Murat of security to his 
throne, and through Joseph made a last effort to re- 
gain the loyalty and co-operation of the King of Naples- 

From Troyes he advanced northward to fall upon 
Blucher, leaving Oudinot and Gerard to hold Schwart- 
zenberg in check. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 415 

Those generals were defeated soon after. The em- 
peror, who expected to find the enemy before Sois- 
sons, learned on the 4th of March that the town had 
surrendered. An attack on the position failed, and 
on the 7th he gave Blucher battle at Craonne. With 
victory for the moment, he pursued the Prussian com- 
mander to the stronghold of Laon. Upon these 
heights, protected by terrace- walls, between which lay 
the fruitful vineyards, the foe were intrenched, and 
through the mist which covered the advancing columns 
of the French till midway on the slope, poured their 
terrible fire into the ranks of Napoleon, The storm 
of balls was irresistible, and retiring, the next day, 
March 11th, they retreated to Chavignon, leaving thirty 
cannon and ten thousand men. At Soissons he com- 
menced strengthening his position to meet Blucher, 
when tidings that Rheims was taken by St. Priest, a 
French emigrant, with a Eussian corps, reached his 
ear. 

He immediately and rapidly marched thither, and 
took the town by assault at midnight. St. Priest was 
killed by the same artilleryman that directed the gun 
which cut Moreau in pieces ; and drew from Napoleon 
the remark, " It really seems like a stroke -of Prov- 
idence." While these things were transpiring on the 
field of conflict, Joseph was tortured with anxiety 
among the restless masses at home. He wrote in the 
following pleading tone to Napoleon : 

"As for you, sire, who have been so repeatedly 
victorious, I am convinced that you possess all the 
qualities which might make the French forget, or 
rather might recall to them, the best features of the 
reigns of Louis XII., Henri IV., and Louis XIY., if 
yon will make a lasting peace with Europe, and i^ 



416 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

returning to your natural kindness, and renouncing 
your assumed character and your perpetual efforts, 
you will at last consent to relinquisli the part of the 
wonderfal man for that of the great sovereign. 

" After having saved France from anarchy within, . 
and from all Europe without, you will become the 
father of your people, and you will be adored as much 
as Louis XII., after having been admired more than 
Henri lY. and Louis XIY. ; and in order thus to ac- 
cumulate every species of glory, you have only to 
will your own happiness, as well as that of France. 

" The result of all that I hear from the mimsteis, 
from the chief officers of the national guards, from all 
the persons whom I know to be attached to the pres- 
ent order of government, is, that circumstances render 
peace imperative. There is not one individual in 
Paris who would not loudly ask for it if it were not 
for the fear of offending you ; and, in truth, none but 
your enemies can endeavor to persuade you to refuse 
a peace with the ancient limits. The month of March 
is slipping away, yet the fields are not sown. It 
is, however, superfluous to enter into further details. 
Your majesty must feel that there is no longer any 
remedy but peace, and an immediate peace. Every 
day that is lost is mischievous to our personal popu- 
larity. Individual distress is extreme; and oa the 
day when it is believed that your majesty has pre- 
ferred prolonging the war to making even a disad- 
vantageous peace, there is no doubt that disgust will 
incline the public mind in another direction. If 
Toulouse or Bordeaux should set up a Bourbon, you 
will have civil war, and the immense population of 
Paris will support the side which promises to give 
them peace soonest. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 417 

" Sucli is the state of opinion ; no one can change 
it. This being the case, the only way is to submit. 
If the peace be unfavorable, it will be no fault of 
yours, as all classes here insist upon it. . I can not be 
mistaken, as my view is that of all the world. We 
are on the eve of total destruction ; our only hope is 
in peace." 

Napoleon was four days at Rheims, from which he 
replied to the complaints of his brother in a manner 
wholly characteristic, and which needs no comment to 
prove the essential selfishness of his nature beneath 
all the grander displays of transcendent abilities. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Eheims, March 14, 1814. 

" My Brother — I have received your letter of the 
12th of March. I am sorry that you repeated to the 
Duke of Conegliauo what I had written to you. I 
do not like all this gossip. If it suited me to remove 
the Duke of Conegliano, all the idle talk of Paris 
would have no effect. The national guard of Paris is 
a part of the people of France, and, as long as I live, 
I will be master everywhere in France. Your char- 
acter is opposed to mine ; you like to flatter people, 
and to yield to their wishes ; I like them to try to 
please me, and to obey my wishes. I am as much a 
sovereign now as I was at Austerlitz. Do not permit 
any person to flatter the national guard, nor Regnaud, 
nor any one else, to set himself up as their tribune. 
I suppose, however, that they see that there is some 
difference between the time of La Fayette, when the 
people ruled, and the present time, when I rule. 

"I have issued a decree for raising twelve battalions 
in Paris oat of the levee en masse. On no pretext must 

IS* 



418 LIFE OF NATOLEON BONAPAllTE. 

the execution of this measure be delayed. I have 
written my wishes on this subject to the ministers of 
the Interior and of the Pohce. If the people find that, 
instead of doing what is for their good, one is trying 
to please them, it is quite natural that they should 
think that they liavo the upper hand, and that they 
should entertain but a mean opinion of those in au- 
thority over them." 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"RnEiMS, March 16, 1814 

"In accordance with the verbal instructions which 
I gave to you, and with the spirit of all my letters, 
you must not allow, happen what may, the empress 
and the King of Rome to foil into the hands of the 
enemy. The manoeuvres which I am about to make 
may possibly prevent your hearing from me for 
several days. If the enemy should march on Paris 
with so strong a force as to render resistance impos- 
sible, send off toward the Loire the regent, my son, 
the great dignitaries, the ministers, the senators, the 
president of the Oonseil d'Etat, the chief officers of 
the crown, and Baron de la Bouillerie, with the money 
which is in my treasury. Never lose sight of my son, 
and remember, that I would rather know that he was 
in the Seine, than that he was in the hands of the 
enemies of France : the fate of Astyanax, prisoner to 
the Greeks, has always seemed to me to be the most 
lamentable in history," 

Wellington, with the Spanish hero, Mina, had taken 
Bordeaux, invested Bayonne, and was sweeping vic- 
toriously onward to the interior Of France. " And such 
a flood of soldiers as had not been seen since the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. '1 1 1> 

Crusades, poured over Franco, and against one for- 
midable man." 

The once sublime solitary monarch in self-reliance 
and magical supremacy, was now like the surrounded 
and yet defiant lion, chafing against restraint, and 
doubtful in what direction to mnjcc the desperate at- 
tempt at escape. Should he })ress on after l^lucher, 
Schwartzenberg would hasten to Paris before he 
could return, if victorious. If he encountered the 
Litter, Blucher would dasli onward to the Tuilleries. 
lie decided to do neither, but march into the rear of 
the grand army, and, by the terror of his name and 
skillful manoeuvring, direct oiid paralyze their move- 
ments toward Paris. On the 20th he was at Arcis- 
sur-aube, where Schwartzenberg gave him battle, and 
was beaten back with desperate valor. He was two 
hundred miles from the capital, with bolli the generals 
of the allied forces between him and tliat city. 

The 22(1 he reached Vilry, in the path of the 
enemy, and summoned tlie commandant to surrender 
in vain. The next day he was at St. Dizier, and sub- 
sequently had sharp skirmishes with the divisions 
left to watch his progress. Tidings reached him that 
the main columns of the allies were rapidly approach- 
ing Paris. lie then pushed forward with a superhu- 
man energy, and reached Troves on the 29th, having 
marched fifty miles in a single day. Early in the 
morning with the remnant of his guard he advanced 
a short distance, and tlien leaving them, he took a light 
carriage, and, accompanied by Caulaincourt and Ber- 
thier, passed through Sens at dead of night, ordering 
rations for one hundred and fifty thousand troops, 
who he affirmed were advancing, and arrivid at La 
Cour dc France, ten miles from Paris, March 31st. 

" Now, if one of the marshals had been in com- 



420 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

mand — if he had had to report that such had been the 
employment of the last army, and the last month, of 
the empire — what would have been the storm of re- 
proach and invective with which he would have been 
assailed by Kapoleon ! 

The ill-success of the first fortnight may be ex- 
cused. In his desperate state Napoleon was forced to 
run great risks, and the defeat of Blucher would have 
been a glorious prize. But from the time that he 
marched eastward, to the rear of Schwartzenberg, he 
seems to have wandered without any definite plan, 
at least without any definite military plan. He 
relied on the terror of his name. He had so often 
repeated that " in war moral force is every thing," that 
he seems to have believed it to be literally true. He 
believed that all the armies that were advancing on 
Paris would turn back as soon as they found that he 
was in their rear, and would follow him till he could 
be succored by his garrisons on the Ehine. In this ex- 
pectation he marched and countermarched, approach- 
ed Vitry on the 22d, was in St. Dizier on the 23d, 
left it on the 24th, returned to it on the 26th, tried 
Yitry again on the 27th, and awoke from his dream 
on the 28th to find that, while he was in Lorraine, 
the allies were within a march of Paris." 

In Paris terror and confusion reigned. " The terri- 
fied population of the country between Meaux and 
Paris came pouring into the capital," says an eye-wit- 
ness, "with their aged, infirm, children, cats, dogs, 
live-stock, corn, hay, and household goods of every 
description : The boulevards were crowded with 
wagons, carts, and carriages thus laden, to which 
cattle were tied, and the whole surrounded with 
women.") 

The empress had fled, attended with seven hundred 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 421 

soldiers, leaving only the national guard in the city ; 
and with a train of wagons laden with plate and 
money, reached Eambouillet. She there addressed a 
note to Joseph : 

MARLA. LOUISE TO JOSEPH. 

" Eambouillet, March 29 ; 5 J p. m. 
"My Dear Brother — I have this instant reached 
Eambouillet, very sad and very harassed. It would 
be very kind if you would let me know what is going 
on, and whether the enemy has advanced. I wait for 
your answer before I decide whether I ought to go 
farther or to remain here. If I ought to move I beg 
you to tell me what place you think would be best 
and safest for me. I earnestly wish that you could 
write to me to return to Paris ; it is the thing of all 
others which would give me most pleasure. A thou- 
sand remembrances to the queen. Pray believe in the 
sincere friendship with which I am your most affection- 
ate sister." 

Alarmout and Morfier made a fruitless, though brave 
resistance, up to the very walls of the capital. The 
80th was a fearful day. From Montmartre, and other 
heights, the allies poured the cannonade into the 
streets. Officers were dispatched with flags of truce 
to beg for a suspension of hostilities, but in the ter- 
rific siege, they were shot down upon the intervening 
plain. At 5 o'clock p. M., the capitulation was signed. 
At La Cour de France, General Belliard came up with 
his exhausted, despairing cavalry. On the way to 
Fontainebleau, Napoleon learned that he was too late, 
and springing from his carriage inquired with agita- 
tion, "What means this? Why here with your 
cavalry, Belliard ? And where are the enemy ? Where 



422 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAKTE. 

are my wife and my boy ? Where Marmont ? Where 
Mortier?" Belliard, walking by his side, told him the 
events of the day. He called out for his carriage — 
and insisted on continuing his journey. The general 
in vain informed him that there was no longer an army 
in Paris ; that the regulars were all coming behind, 
and that neither they nor he himself, having left the 
city in consequence of a convention, could possibly 
return to it. The emperor still demanded his carriage, 
and bade Belliard turn with the cavalry and follow 
him. " Come," said he, " we must to Paris — nothing 
goes aright when I am away — ^they do nothing but 
blunder." With such exclamations Bonaparte hurried 
onward, dragging Belliard with him until they were 
met, a mile from La Oour do France, by the first of 
the retreating infantry. Their commander, General 
Curial, gave the same answers as Belliard. '' In pro- 
ceeding to Paris," said he, " you rush on death or cap- 
tivity." 

But soon, seeing the dreaded reality of overthrow, 
he resumed his calmness, sent Caulaincourt to Paris, to 
accept whatever terms might be offered, and hastened 
to the old castle of Foatainebleau. In the stillness of 
a secluded apartment, he laid down to repose ; ex- 
changing the dreams of greatness for the feverish 
thoughts of a fallen monarch, who had given away 
thrones and kingdoms, but was now an exile from his 
own palace. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Caulaincourt secures an interview with the Czar of Russia. — Scenes in 
the capital. — Correspondence between Napoleon and Joseph. — The 
abdication. — The royal debate upon the disposal of the fallen 
emperor. — Marmont's treachery. — The conditions of the allies. — 
Joseph urges peace. — Napoleon's anguish. — Attempts suicide. — 
Adieu to his army. — Josephine and Maria Louisa. — Napoleon em- 
barks for Elba. — The return of Louis XVIIL — His reign. — Napo- 
leon at Elba. — His return to France. — The tidings reach Talleyrand 
on the eve of a ball. — Vain attempt to regain the empress and her 
son. — Letters. — The exile again on the throne. — The allies enter 
the field. — Napoleon leads the French army. — The plan of the cam- 
paign. — The battles of Ligny and Quatre-Bras. — Waterloo. — The 
charge of the Old Guard. — The victory of Wellington. — The flight 
of Napoleon. — He reaches the Elysee. — The meeting of the Cham- 
bers. — The debates. — The abdication. 

The same night in whicTi the emperor was alone at 
Fontaiuebleau, Canlaincourt rode in the lurid light of 
the camp-fires around the capital, towards the head, 
quarters of the allied kings. It was the first of April, 
when the dawn broke upon the tumultuous city. The 
Duke of Yicenza was repulsed, and an audience with 
Alexander, who retained some show of interest in 
Napoleon, seemed impossible, when unexpectedly 
meeting the Grand Duke Constantine, the czar's 
brother, with whom he was familiar at St. Petersburg, 
he was conveyed in disguise to the royal presence. 
With Alexander he passed several hours. He was 
awhile alone in the apartment of the palace of the 
Elysee, occupied by Napoleon for sleeping, where he 
found private papers, plans, and maps left by his sov- 



424 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

ereign, and committed tliem to the flames. During 
three hours the triumphal procession was moving 
through Paris ; fifty thousand troops — cavalry and in- 
fantry, all finely equipped, and surrounding the mon- 
archs and princes in splendid array — marched along 
the Boulevards. 

Strengthened by the influence of Talleyrand, and 
the tract of Chateaubriand, entitled "Of Bonaparte 
and the Bourbons," the royalists rallied at the entrance 
of the allies, and from the moving, mighty throng of 
excited people, were heard the shouts, " Yive I'Empe- 
reur Alexander !" " Yive le Eoi de Prusse !" " Yivo 
le Eoi !" " Yive Louis XYIII. !" " Yivent les Bour- 
bons ! " The white cockades of the Bourbons, were 
scattered through the multitude, while silent groups 
on every hand, declared the grief of the many hearts 
still devoted to the fallen idol of Prance. 

As night came down, the scene was grotesque and 
wild in the extreme. Every tongue, and people, and 
costume were mingled in the uncertain light, while in 
the Elysian Fields, the Cossacks held their savage 
jubilee around their bivouac fires. It was midnight 
when Caulaincourt returned to Pontainebleau, and in- 
formed Napoleon that the only promise of peace, was 
in the surrender of his crown in favor of his son — in 
a word nothing short of abdication would be accepted 
by the monarchs who had battled for the restoration 
of the dethroned dynasty swept away on the volcanic 
tide of revolution. 

The two brothers, who continued their friendship 
in these calamitous times, exchanged messages, which 
present them in an unenviable, less imposing aspect 
than when viewed in the turmoil of public events : • 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 425 
NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

"^ONTAINEBLEAU, April 2, 1814. 

" I desired the grand marshal to write to you on 
the necessity of not crowding into Blois. Let the 
King of Westphalia go to Brittany or toward Bour- 
ges. I think that Madame had better join her daugh- 
ters at Nice, and Queen Julie and your children pro- 
ceed to Marseilles. The Princess of Neufchatel and 
the marshals' wives should go and live on their es- 
tates. It is natural that King Louis, who has always 
liked hot climates, should go to Montpellier. As few 
persons as possible should be on the Loire, and let 
every one settle himself quietly, without attracting 
attention. A large colony always excites a sensation 
in the neighborhood. The Provence road is now 
open — it may not remain so for one day. Among 
the other ministers you do not mention the minister 
of police. Has he reached you ? I do not know 
whether the minister of war has his cipher. I have 
none with you, and as this is the case I can not write 
to you on important subjects. 

"Advise every body to observe the strictest econ- 
omy." 

JOSEPH TO NAPOLEON. 

"Blois, April 3, 1814. 
"Sire — I have received your letter of the 2d. 
Mamma and Louis are ready to fulfill your wishes. 
Mamma is in want of money ; six months of her pen- 
sion is due. Neither has Jerome any money. My 
wife has no longer any friends at Marseilles. What 
occasions our train to appear so large is the number 
of empty carriages belonging to the court. I have re- 
ceived no letter from the grand marshal on this sub- 
ject or on any other. The minister of police baa 



426 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

returned hither from Tours. The council to-day were 
unanimous in its opinions and wishes. We are wait- 
ing for your majesty's decision as to the place of 
residence. May the fears which have been excited 
by the Duke of Yicenza's report never be realized ! 
The minister of war has no cipher with your majesty, 
nor have I. The ministers of the treasury and 
of finance know no longer how to discharge their 
duties. M. de la Bouillerie asks for orders to ensure 
the safety of his convoy. One of his fourgons, contain- 
ing two millions, has reached Orleans ; it was left 
in Paris when the empress went away. Might not 

Jerome be sent to command the army at Lyons ?" 

« 

Talleyrand joined with all his heart the cause of 
Louis XVIIL, and was placed at the head of the 
provisional government. JSTesselrode, the czar's min- 
ister, was decidedly in favor of a regency, securing the 
crown to the young King of Eome. The Senate fol- 
lowed the treacherous Talleyrand, and passed a 
decree deposing Napoleon. The emperor reviewed 
his troops on the 3d of April, amid the shouts, " To 
Paris — ^to Paris!" A council of officers, civil and 
military, dispelled the last illusion from his mind. 
They declared that any further struggle was fruitless 
— all was lost. With words of mournful rebuke, he 
retired to his room, and, after hours of agonizing de- 
liberation, he summoned Caulaincourt, and handed 
him the following abdication, saying, with the air of 
a conqueror chained, but not submitting, " Depart, 
Caulaincourt ; depart immediately." 

" The allied forces having proclaimed that the 
emperor Napoleon is the sole obstacle to the re-es- 
tablishment of peace in Europe, he, faithful to his 
oath, declares that he is ready to descend from the 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 427 

throne, to quit France, and even to relinquisli life, for 
the good of his country, which is inseparable from the 
rights of his son, from those of the regency in the 
person of the empress, and from the maintenance of 
the laws of the empire. Done at our palace of Fon- 
tainebleau, April 4th, 1814. 

" Napoleon." 

In the hotel of Talleyrand the abdication was dis- 
cussed, and Alexander expressed his astonishment 
that there were no conditions in behalf of Napoleon 
personally, and added, " But I have been his friend, 
and I will willingly be his advocate. I propose that 
he should retain his imperial title, with the sov- 
erei2;nty of Elba, or some other island." The counsel 
of the czar prevailed against the wishes of the Bour- 
bons, who desired a more secure and remote prison 
for the illustrious successor of the murdered Louis. 

Marmont had forsaken the fortunes of Napoleon — 
the final blow of unpitying misfortune upon his 
crownless brow. The marshal concealed the plot from 
his men until the morning of the 5th, when they com- 
menced their march toward Paris ; " and for the first 
time suspected the secret views of their chief, when 
they found themselves in the midst of the allied lines, 
and watched on all sides by overwhelming numbers 
in the neighborhood of Yersailles. A violent com- 
motion ensued ; some blood was shed ; but the ne- 
cessity of submission was so obvious, that ere long 
they resumed the appearance of order, and were can- 
toned in quiet in the midst of the allies. 

" This piece of intelligence was followed by more 
of like complexion. Officers of all ranks began to 
abandon the camp at Fontainebleau, and present 
themselves to swear allegiance to the new ^ovena ■ 



428 LIFE OP NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

merit. Talleyrand said wittily, when some one called 
Marmont a traitor, ' His watch only went a little 
faster tban the others.' " 

The allies sent their acceptance of nothing less than 
an unconditional abdication, with these concessions : 

1st. The imperial title to be preserved by Napoleon, 
with the free sovereignty of Elba, guards, and a navy 
suitable to the extent of that island, and a pension, 
from France, of six millions of francs annually. 2d. 
The duchies of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla to be 
granted in sovereignty to Maria Louisa and her hdrs ; 
and 8d. Two millions and a half of francs annually 
to be paid by the Frencb government, in pensions to 
Josephine and the other members of the Bonaparte 
family. Kapoleon was still undecided whether to 
yield all, when he received the subjoined and sug- 
gestive letter : 

JOSEPH TO FAPOLEOIvr. 

" Orleans, April 10, 1814. 
"Sire — ^I wrote to you yesterday that we should 
be here to-day, and here we actually are. Greneral 
Schuwalofij aide-de-camp to the Emperor of Eussia, 
accompanied the empress. He came to Blois yester- 
day with M. de Saint- Aignan, who said nothing on 
the subject of his mission. K what is reported should 
prove true, and the Bourbons should be called to the 
throne, I am most anxious not to be obliged to ask 
any thing from them. I could not possibly live in 
France, nor could I take my wife and children to the 
island of Elba. If sad necessity should force your 
majesty thither, 1 will go to visit you, and to prove to 
you my attachment ; but it will not be until I have 
placed my wife and children in safety on the con- 
tinent. 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. 420 

" All that takes place, sire, justifies my old and 
fatal predictions. You must take a decided course, 
and put an end to this cruel agony. Why not appeal 
to Austria if necessary? Your son is the grandson 
of Francis. Why not speak the truth openly to 
France, and at length proclaim peace, abolish the 
conscription and the droits reunis, issue a general 
amnesty, and adopt a real constitutional monarchy ? 
France wishes for peace and a liberal monarchy, but 
she does not wish for Bourbons. She prefers them to 
perpetual war, but she receives them only as a pun- 
ishment, to which she resigns herself because she is 
beaten. 

"M. Faypoult has just returned from Italy ; the 
army there is in excellent order ; the viceroy is quietly 
at Mantua ; the King of Naples prays for your suc- 
cess, if you desire universal peace and the independ- 
ence of Italy. A single effort might perhaps extri- 
cate France from the abyss into which she is falling. 
An immediate decision with regard both to military 
affairs and to politics may perhaps repair all in favor 
of your son ; be bold enough to try it. Save the state 
from imminent danger by getting rid of princes who 
will revive old hatreds, and inflict a fresh injury upon 
the country by internal disturbances, brought on by 
the pride of the old nobility and the vanity of the 
new, and the character of the people raised by the 
revolution to a level at which we may lament that it 
was not left. 

" The Cossacks have appeared on the road from 
Beaugency to Orleans, and robbed some of the car- 
riages belonging to the convoy." 

The next day, when the allies were threatening 
Fontainebleau, Napoleon gave liis signature to the 



430 LIFE or NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

dreaded instrument ; renouncing for himself and his 
heirs the thrones of Prance and of Italy. His anguish 
at the moment is described as intense beyond expres- 
sion. But why such agony, if in the conscientious de- 
votion of his energies to the disinterested work of ele- 
vating the people, with no care for personal glory, he 
had been overwhelmed, and his mission prematurely 
closed ? 

He grieved for France, but a heart of vast ambition 
was writhing under the deeper wounds to his pride, 
and the dark eclipse of his radiant star of destiny. 

That he attempted suicide in his despair, is a charge 
that can not be intelligently denied. To evade this 
unpleasant fact, a late historian omits the part of Caul- 
aincourt's testimony which proves it. In regard to 
Napoleon's alarming illness at this time, Caulaincouri 
adds in his narrative : " He refused all assistance pooi 
Constance strove to give him. Ivan* was called 
When the emperor saw" him, he said: 'Ivao, the 
dose was not strong enough.' Then it ivas they acquired 
(he sad certainty that he had taken poison^ 

April 20th, he summoned his officers about hiin, 
to give his sad farewell. He thus addressed them: 
" For you, gentlemen, I am no longer to be with you ; 
— ^you have another government ; and it will become 
you to attach yourselves to it frankly, and serve it as 
faithfully as you have served me." 

He then called before him the relics of the Old Guard. 
He surveyed them as they were drawn up in the court- 
yard of the castle, with tears. Dismounting, he ad- 
vanced toward them, and said, with strong emotion : 
" All Europe has armed against me. France herself 
has deserted me, and chosen another dynasty. I might, 
with my soldiers, have maintained a civil war for 

* The physician. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 431 

years — but it would have rendered France unhappy. 
Be faithfid to the new sovereign whom your country 
lias chosen. Do not lament my fate : I shall always 
be happy while I know that you are so. I could have 
died — nothing was easier — ^but I will always follow 
the path of honor. I will record with my pen the 
deeds we have done together. I can not embrace you 
all, but I embrace your general. Bring hither the 
eagle. Beloved eagle ! may the kisses I bestow on 
you long resound in the hearts of the brave ! Fare- 
well, my children — farewell, my brave companions — 
surround me once more — farewell !" 

This adieu touched every heart, and amid the si- 
lent but profound grief of these brave men, submit- 
ting like himself to the irresistible force of events, Na- 
poleon placed himself in his carriage, and drove rapidly 
from Fontainebleau. 

Of all that lamented the fall of this extraordinary 
man, there was perhaps no one who shed bitterer tears 
than the neglected wife of his youth. Josephine had 
fled from Paris on the approach of the allies ; but 
being assured of the friendly protection of Alexander, 
returned to Malmaison ere Napoleon quitted Fontaine- 
bleau. The czar visited her frequently, and endeavored 
to soothe her affliction. But the ruinof "her Achilles," 
" her Cid" (as she now once more, in the day of misery, 
called Napoleon), had entered deep into her heart. 
She sickened and died before the alhes left France. 

Maria Louisa, meanwhile, and her son, were taken 
under the personal protection of the Emperor of Aus- 
tria, and had begun their journey to Vienna some time 
ere Bonaparte reached Elba. 

Four commissioners, one from each of the great 
allied powers, Austria, Kussia, Prussia, and England, 
accompanied Bonaparte on his journey. He was at* 



432 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tended by Bertrand, grand master of tlie palace, and 
some other attached friends and servants ; and while 
fourteen carriages were conveying him and his imme- 
diate suite toward Elba, seven hundred infantry and 
about one hundred and fifty cavalry of the imperial 
guard, all picked men, and all volunteers, marched 
in the same direction, to take on them the military 
duties of the exiled court. 

The journey of seven hundred miles to Frejus, the 
port of embarkation, was performed in seven days, 
amid demonstrations of affection from the people. 

On the evening of the 28th, on board the British 
frigate the Undaunted^ he was bound for Elba ; and 
May 3d, at sunset, the island rose from the haze of 
the distant horizon upon his view. Distributing a 
purse to the crew, he landed under a salute from the 
battery, at Porto Ferrajo, the chief town of his sea- 
girdled land of exile. With a circumference of sixty 
miles, mountainous, rocky, and much of it barren, 
Elba lies soKtary on the bosom of the Mediterranean, 
two hundred miles from France. Napoleon immedi- 
ately explored every valley and ravine, and with his 
restless energies planned manifold improvements. He 
often reviewed the few hundred veteran soldiers who 
attended him to the island, and frequented his farm a 
few miles from Ferrajo. Thousands from Europe 
visited Elba, attracted thither by the presence of the 
illustrious captain. 

Louis XVIII., the brother of the slain monarch, an 
aged gouty man, from his exile in England, went to 
the throne of France, by a decree of the Senate. The 
policy of Napoleon was formally continued in the con- 
ditions of his restoration ; but soon the ancient order 
of things was apparent, and the cherished principle of 
the divine right of kings, was declared in all his acts. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 483 

Whatever the privileges secured, they were his sover~ 
eign gift, and not the inalienable right of the people. 
He blotted out in the date of his royal edicts, the rec- 
ognition of any legitimate authority from the dawn of 
the revolution to the abdication. The allies in their 
triumph released unconditionally the prisoners of war, 
giving to France one hundred and fifty thousand 
veteran troops, with the memory of former victories, 
and answering to the story of disaster they heard on 
every hand, " These things would never have hap- 
pened had we been here." The corpulent old king 
made a most unfortunate contrast to himself, with the 
manly, energetic, fascinating Napoleon. And during 
the summer of 1814, the murmurs of discontent rose 
round the Bourbon throne, and reached the mightier 
prince, even in exile. 

The mother of the emperor, and his sister Pauline 
joined him, and cheered his captivity. Between him 
and Sir Neil Campbell, the English commissioner, from 
a pleasant intercourse at first, there arose a cold and 
formal distance — his government refusing to acknowl- 
edge the imperial title, while his ofiice became essen- 
tially that of reporter to his cabinet at home. Napo- 
leon hated both. 

In February, 1815, Baron Chaboulon, once a member 
of Napoleon's Council of State, visited Elba, in disguise, 
to confer with him respecting affairs in the realm. 
After long conversations, the Baron assured him that 
France was ripe for revolution, and would receive him 
back with exultation. The 27th came, and with it the 
hasty preconcerted embarkation of the emperor, with 
his thousand followers, in the brig Inconstant and 
three small merchant vessels. 

It is a significant circumstanc3, that the Undaunted, 
19 



434 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

an Englisli ship, bore him to Elba, and the Inconstant 
restored him to the transient smiles of fortune. 

Upon the last day of February, the Zephyr, a 
French brig of war, was seen sailing directly for 
the Inconstant. The captain inquired after the em- 
peror's health. ISTapoleon, taking the trumpet from 
the ofacer's hand, shouted back, "He is marvelously 
well." Other vessels passing in sight awakened mo- 
mentary fears; but March 1st he landed at Cannes, 
where he first reached the coast of France from the 
campaign in Egypt, and at which he embarked for 
Elba, ten months before. 

" Wherever he passed he was greeted with accla- 
mations. He went on triumphantly from point to 
point — ^his army augmenting at every step till he 
reached Grenoble, which threw open its gates; and 
reviewing seven thousand men, he pressed on toward 
Lyons, which held at that moment a powerful force 
under Marshal Macdonald, and Monsieur, the heir of 
the empire. 

" Meantime, the Congress of Vienna that had been so 
long in session they had began to fight over the divis- 
ion of the spoils of conquered nations, were astounded 
by the news that Napoleon had landed in France and 
was marching on Paris ! 

" The emperor resumed at Lyons the administration 
of his empire, having already by his eloquent procla- 
mations electrified France. To the soldiers he saial 
— ' Take again the eagles you followed at Ulm, Aus- 
terlitz, Jena, and Montmirail. Come range yourselves 
under the banners of your old chief. Victory shall 
march at every charging step. The eagle with the 
national colors, shall fly from steeple to steeple — on to 
the towers of Notre Dame ! In your old age, sur- 
rounded and honored by your fellow-citizens, you 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 435 

shall be heard with respect when you recount your 
noble deeds. You shall then say with pride — * I also 
was one of that great army which twice entered the 
walls of Vienna, took Eome, Berlin, Madrid and 
Moscow — and which delivered Paris from the stnin of 
domestic treason and the occupation of strangers." ' 

" And thus from village to village and city to city, 
the swelling tide rolled on toward Paris. On the 
night of the 19th the emperor once more slept at his 
palace of Fontainebleau. The next evening he made 
his public entry into his capital, and amid the shouts 
of hundreds of thousands the conqueror of kingdoms 
entered the Tuilleries, and was borne in triumph on 
the shoulders of the Parisians to the maguificeut 5a/o?i, 
now crowded by the beauty and chivalry of Paris, and 
from Avhich Louis XVIII. had but a few hours before 
fled. Acclamations wilder than had ever proclaimed 
his greatest victories, rang through Paris, and all 
night the cannon of Austerlitz and Marengo senj; tlieir 
reverberations over the illuminated city. 

"Europe — astounded by the intelligence wherever 
it spread — was now marshalled for the last struggle 
against Napoleon. The great powers signed a final 
treaty, in which they proclaimed Bonaparte an outlaw, 
and pledged their faith to exterminate him from the 
face of the earth. Once more every nation on the con- 
tinent rang with the clangor of warlike preparation, 
and before sixty days had passed, a million of armed 
men were marching to the scene of the final struggle. 

" Before the close of May, Napoleon had upwards of 
three hundred thousand soldiers ready for battle, be- 
sides an imperial guard of nearly forty thousand chosen 
veterans ; while the last scion of the Bourbon race had 
been driven from the soil, and the tri-color, which had 
waved in triumph over so many subject nations, was 



436 LIFE OF IfAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

now unfurled again from the Rhine to the Pyrenees — 
and from the British Channel to the shores of the 
Mediterranean." 

The force and fascination of Napoleon's mind, and 
his th(5rough knowledge of all the avenues to the sol- 
dier's heart, were never more sublimely illustrated 
than in this bloodless march of seven hundred miles 
over a country from which he had been driven an 
exile, amid the acclamations of the army and the 
people. 

The tidings of the astounding event went before the 
triumphal cavalcade. 

Talleyrand was making his toilet, preparatory to a 
magnificent ball given by his niece the Princess of 
Courland, when she brought a note from Metternich. 
He bade her open and read it. Trembling, she ex- 
claimed, " Heavens ! Bonaparte has left Elba ! What 
is to become of my ball this evening?" Talleyrand 
assured her coolly it should take place ; but the con- 
sternation which followed the announcement in the 
royal saloon at Vienna, could not be concealed. 

The Duchess of Angouleme, whose husband had 
been surrounded by General Gill, and capitulated, was 
at Bordeaux; a city with one hundred thousand in- 
habitants and an army of ten thousand men. She was 
the daughter of Louis XYI., and a brave and ener- 
getic woman. She appealed with tears to the troops 
in this hour of peril, but gained only a faint response, 
and was compelled to fly. Napoleon said of her caus- 
tically, '' She is the only man of her race." 

The tri-color rose on tower and bulwark, till in a 
few weeks, it waved again over the hills and valleys 
of France 

Around Napoleon were the allied powers of Europe. 
In vain he endeavored to open a negotiation with 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 437 

them, presenting as reasons for his return and invasion, 
the detention of Maria Louisa and his son by Austria, 
the non-payment of his pension, and the voice of the 
nation, inviting him to take again the sceptre. His 
foes were inflexible in their purpose, and could bring 
no less than a million of troops against a force which 
could not reacb half that number. 

An attempt to secure the restoration of the empress 
and her son to the Tuilleries failed, leaving the only 
hope of a successful issue to the gathering storm, 
whicb would re-unite the imperial family. 

Murat, King of Naples, upon hearing of Napoleon's 
return, determined, in perfect harmony with the im- 
petuous daring of his nature, to anticipate the em- 
peror, and fall with fifty thousand Neapolitans upon 
the allies. Talleyrand had with bitter enmity affirmed 
that Murat was secretly hostile to the allies, while 
Wellington thought him true to their interest. This 
impulsive and fatal onset decided his position, and 
sealed his doom. He met the Austrians at Occtrio- 
bello, and saw his army cut in pieces around him. 
He sought death beneath the leaden hail, but sur- 
vived to escape in a fishing vessel, and landed near 
Toulon. He was seized, tried, and shot. Thus died a 
man of lofty spirit — vain-glorious — impulsive — and 
fearless ; a shining mark of gallant and splendid com- 
mand in battle, whose presence at Waterloo Napoleon 
said might have changed the fortune of the world. 
Louis XVIII. had retired to Ghent, in Holland, an 
ancient, deserted city, to wait for the close of this new 
act in the drama of European and Napoleonic revolu- 
tion and bloodshed. 

A note, written meanwhile to Joseph, reveals a 
part of the plot in assuming the reins of authority, 
bv which the bold enterprise was to be effected ; 



438 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

NAPOLEON TO JOSEPH. 

" Paris, May 2, 1815. 

"My Brother — It is necessaiy to organize tlio 
Spaniards who are in France. A junta must be 
created composed of five members from the nK)st 
active and enterprising. They will reside here, and 
correspond with the minister of foreign affairs. The 
existence of this junta must be kept secret. It must 
have agents on the principal points of our frontier on 
the Pyrenees. The agents must be known to our 
civil and military of&cers, and their correspondence 
with the junta be post free. The business of the junta 
will be to edit in Paris a Spanish newspaper, to ap- 
pear every two days, to be circulated by these agents 
through every channel, and in every part of Spain. 
The objects of the newspaper will be to enlighten the 
Spaniards, to make known to them our constitution, 
and to induce them to rebel and to desert. A further 
duty of the junta will be to raise guerillas, and to in- 
troduce them into Spain. The president of the junta 
will be accredited to the minister of foreign affairs. 
AH the pecuniary assistance afforded to the Spaniards, 
at the rate of 120,000 francs a month, will be dis- 
tributed by the junta." 

To conciliate the opposing parties, especially the 
extremes of republicanism and royalty, and muster 
his legions for conflict, was a work no mind but Na- 
poleon's would have attempted. He enlarged the 
liberty of the press, and prepared " An act additional 
to the constitutions of the empire," the latter of which 
was submitted to Joseph and other influential leaders 
of the discordant masses. The additional decrees 
provided in form for the arrangement of a free repre- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 439 

sentative constitution ; hereditary monarchy ; an he- 
reditary peerage ; a house of representatives, chosen 
by the people, at least once within every five years ; 
yearly taxes, levied only by the whole legislature ; 
responsible ministers ; irremovable judges; and in all 
criminal cases whatever, the trial by jury. 

This amendment, which secured, it can not be denied, 
the rights of the people to a degree greatly exceeding 
the best monarchies of Europe, was accepted by the 
electoral colleges, and Napoleon designated the 1st 
of June for a grand assemblage on the field of Mars, 
to approve his resumption of sovereignty, and give 
imposing effect to the new order of things. The vast 
area of that renowned plain was thronged witli the 
millions of soldiery and citizens. The emperor ap- 
peared on the elevated platform in robes of royalty, 
and stood by the altar at which the Archbishop of 
Rouen performed religious rites. Amid thunders of 
applause he received the oath . of fidelity from the 
army, distributed the eagles, and then retired to con- 
template in silence, as the roar of artillery died away, 
the doubtful struggle into which his faithful battalions 
must enter. The plan of the campaign was to cross 
the frontier, and fall upon the enemy unexpectedly, 
and beat back the overwhelming tide. Paris was for- 
tified, and all the outposts strengthened. Upon the 
12th day of June, with the dawning light. Napoleon 
left the Tuillcrics to join his army. 

" It was a fearful crisis. With a fortitude and hero- 
ism, which commands the admiration of the world, 
did Napoleon meet it. He was, as it were, alone. 
Josephine was dead. Maria Louisa and his idolized 
son were prisoners in the saloons of the allies. Eu- 
gene was dethroned, and entangled in the court of 
the King of Bavaria, his father-in-law. Murat was 



440 LIFE OF" NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

wandering a fugitive, in hourly peril of being shot.* 
Lannes, Bessieres, Duroc, were dead. Berthier, 
ashamed to meet his old master, had followed the 
fortunes of the Bourbons. Marmot was a traitor at 
Ghent. Oudinot and Macdonald, honorable men, 
still regarded as sacred their oath of fidelity to the 
Bourbons. Ney, having through the dictates of his 
heart, violated his oath, disheartened by the sense of 
dishonor, had lost his power." The emperor hoped 
to meet the forces of Wellington and Blucher before 
other divisions of the mas-nificent host surround in c»- 
him could unite their strength. Upon the 13th ISla- 
poleon was at Avesncs, one hundred and fifty miles 
from the capital, where were gathered all his available 
troops, amounting to one hundred and thirty-five 
thousand men. He reviewed them on the 14th, re- 
minded them that it was the anniversary of Marengo 
and Friedland, and said, " Are they and we no longer 
the same men ? The madmen ! a moment of pros- 
perity has blinded them. The oppression and humil- 
iation of the French people is bej'ond their power. If 
they enter France, they will there find their tomb. 
Soldiers! we have forced marches, battles, and dan- 
gers before us. For every Frenchman who has a 
heart, the moment is arrived to conquer or to perish !" 
Such was his oration ; and never was army more 
thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its chief. 

" Blucher's army numbered at this time about one 
hundred thousand men, and extending along the line 
of the Sambre and the Meuse, occupied Charleroi, 
Namur, Givet, and Liege. They communicated on 
the right with the left of the Anglo-Belgian army, 
under Wellington, whose head- quarters were at Brus- 
sels. This army was not composed, like Blucher'a or 
* Afterward executed. 



1 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 441 

Napoleon's, of troops of the same nation. The duke 
had under his command seventy-six thousand men. 
His first division occupied Enghein, Brain-le-Compte, 
and Nivelles, communicating with the Prussian right 
at Charleroi. The second division (Lord Hill's) was 
cantoned at Halle, Oudenard, and Gramont — where 
was the most of the cavalry. The reserve (Sir 
Thomas Picton's) were at Brussels and Ghent. The 
English and Prussian commanders had thus arranged 
their troops, with the view of being able to support 
each other, wherever the Frencli might hazard their 
assault. It could not be doubted that Napoleon's 
mark was Brussels ; but by which of the three great 
routes of Namur, of Charleroi, or of Mens, he designed 
to force his passage, could not be ascertained before- 
hand. Fouche, indeed, doubly and trebly dyed in 
treason, had, when accepting office under Napoleon, 
continued to maintain his correspondence with Louis 
at Ghent, and promised to furnish the allies with the 
outline of the emperor's plan of the campaign ere it 
began. But the minister of police took care that this 
document should not arrive until the campaign was 
decided. 

" On the morning of the 15th, the French drove in 
all the outposts on the west bank of the Sambre, and 
at length assaulted Charleroi, thus revealing the pur- 
pose of the emperor — to crush Blucher ere he could 
concentrate all his own strength, far less be supported 
by the advance of Wellington. Ziethen, however, 
held out, though with severe loss, at Charleroi so 
long, that the alarm spread along the whole Prussian 
line; and then fell back in good order on a position 
between Ligny and Amand ; where Blucher now 
waited Napoleon's attack, at the head of the whole 
of his array, except the division of Bulow, which had 

19* 



442 LIFE OF "NAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

not yet come up from Liege. The scheme of beaticg 
the Prussian divisions in detail had therefore failed ; 
but the second part of the plan, namely, that of sep- 
arating them wholly from Wellington, might still 
succeed. And with this view, while Blucher was 
concentrating his force about Ligny, the French held 
on the main road to Brussels from Charleroi, and, 
beating in some Nassau troops at Frasnes, followed 
them as far as Quaire-Bras ; and finally took possession 
of that farm-house, so called because it is there that 
the roads from Charleroi to Brussels, and from 
Nivelles to Namur, cross each other. 

Blucher had prepared to meet Napoleon, through 
the treachery of General Bourmont, who deserted on 
the eve of battle, and carried the intelligence of his 
advance and intended surprise. But for this deser- 
tion, the issue of the struggle might have been greatly 
changed. 

Intelligence of the emperor's movements reached 
Wellington at six o'clock in the evening. The rumor 
did not prevent a brilliant ball which had been 
arranged by the Duchess of Richmond for the prin- 
cipal officers of the army. 

The clouds were rolling away from Napoleon's star, 
while the thunder of his cannon broke upon the festive 
mirth of the gay assemblage. At dead of night the 
bugle sounded, and the drum's stirring beat was heard 
in ihe streets of Bussels. 

Upon the 16th, the emperor marched toward Ligny, 
which the Prince of Orange had retaken with the 
NivoUes road, reopening the communication of Blu- 
cher with Brussels. Unexpectedly he encountered 
that general leading eighty thousand men, with a 
division of sixty thousand. The day wore away amid 
terrible battle-scenes, and night hung a curtain of 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 4i3 

darkness over the horrors of the calmer field when the 
roar of combat had ceased. 

Napoleon was victorious, and had Ney, according 
to orders, come up to intercept the retreat of the Prus- 
sian troops, the rout might have been complete. 
The brave Ney upon reaching Quatre-Bras the even- 
ing of the 15th, heard nothing of the foe at this point, 
and anticipated its occupation in the morning without 
serious opposition. His weary soldiers lay down be- 
neath the wings of a tempest upon the drenched 
ground, to snatch a brief repose. Meanwhile Welling- 
ton was at Quatre Bras, and to the dismay of Marshal 
Ney, prepared with a formidable array of disciplined 
troops, to dispute his further progress. A sanguinary 
encounter failed to open a passage for the heroic mar- 
shal. Wellington, hearing of Blucher's defeat, fell 
back to the more advantageous field of Waterloo, to 
join the Prussian army. 
. Napoleon, in his bulletins, announced two splendid 
victories at Quatre-Bras and Ligny, costing the allies 
twenty-five thousand men, and the French nearly 
twenty thousand. These results awoke the enthusi- 
asm of the nation to its former ardor, and again invest- 
ed Napoleon's name with the terror which lost its 
power when the Undaunted turned her prow toward 
Elba. 

Leaving Grouchy on the track of the Prussian 
division of the allied army, the emperor hastened to 
Quatre-Bras to unite with Ney and advance upon 
Wellington, if possible to secure a battle before the 
arrival of Blucher who was within a few miles of the 
duke with seventy thousand troops. Toward night of 
the 17th, Napoleon came in sight of Waterloo. Ex- 
pressing an intense desire for a few hours more-of day, 
lie went forth in the storm to reconnoitre the position 



444 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

of the enemy. He sent orders to Grouchy to con- 
tinue his pursuit of the Prussians, and be prepiired to 
aid him in any emergency which might arise. 

Napoleon and Welhngton had each about seventy 
thousand men. The Enghsh forces extended their 
lines more than a mile, and were nearly that distance 
from the town of Waterloo, on a gentle slope, separat- 
ed from the broad plain by a beautiful declivity. In 
front were the most reliable troops, then those who 
had already severely suffered in the previous battle, 
and behind both were posted the horse. The waiting 
foe lay in a convex form, bending at each extreme to- 
ward the forest of Soignies. It was a wide and open 
field — a fit arena for the grand and terrrible strife at 
hand, and affording the most favorable ground for 
retreat, and renewed defense to the duke in case of 
defeat. 

"Finally the day of Napoleon's last battle broke in 
clouds and wind, after a night of tempest. It was 
Sunday — a day which, since the time of the Saviour, 
Christian nations have devoted to mercy, adoration, 
and repose. But the Sabbath of the 18th of June, 
1815, witnessed the struggle of one hundred and fifty 
thousand men grappling with each other in the terrible 
work of destruction, and whoever may have rejoiced in 
the result, the carnage of that day filled Europe with 
mourning. At eleven o'clock Napoleon's bugles gave 
the signal; Jerome advanced with a column of six 
thousand men, and the battle of Waterloo began. 
Under the cover of heavy batteries, whose balls flew 
on their errand of death over the heads of his troops, 
the King of Westphalia charged the right wing of 
Wellington, which rested on the Chateau of Hougo- 
mont. Slowly the engagement extended, from point 
to point, and division closed with division, till the tide 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 445 

of battle had swept over the plain — two miles from 
wing to wing — and one hundred and fifty thousand 
men had closed in the terrific struggle. The battle 
had now lasted from eleven till four, and ten thousand 
men had fallen every hour. Broken, bleeding, and 
exhausted battalions had charged, and closed, and re- 
coiled, and so equal had been the conflict that victory 
seemed about to fold its wings over a mutual slaugh- 
ter." 

Wellington's columns began to waver, and Napo- 
leon felt the joy of anticipated triumph, when thirty 
thousand troops, under Bulow, deployed into the field. 
This advance guard of the Prussian army poured their 
tempest of death upon the columns of the French. 
Napoleon sent ten thousand men to beat back the 
fiery wave of destruction ; charging impetuously, they 
succeeded, and hope again brightened over the em- 
peror, whose restless eye was often turned with intense 
anxiety toward the slopes across which Grouchy would 
wheel his columns into the plain. The marshal heard 
the awful cannonade, but still refused to deviate from 
his original orders, and couriers had failed to reach him 
from Waterloo. Still the emperor's ranks swept down 
upon the enemy with desolating effect. Wellington was 
also impatiently looking for help, and as he saw the, 
falling lines, and the drops of bitter emotion gathered 
upon his brow, he exclaimed, despairingly, " Would to 
heaven that Blucher or night would come!" The 
French cuirassiers charged the right of the British, 
and were permitted to advance within ten yards when 
a deadly fire drove them back. Again and again they 
rallied, rode between the squares, and were cut down 
by the cross fire, till the splendid body of cavaliers 
was slain. Then the blaze of artillery gleamed the 
whole length of the French line, and the enemy were 



44:6 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

ordered to lie on the ground, to escape the iron liail 
that filled the air. 

At this crisis, Blucher emerged from the woods, and 
uniting with Bnlow, led sixty thousand troops to the 
standard of Wellington. Napoleon discovered in a 
moment the peril— the day must be won or lost by a 
desperate, decisive blow. The Old Guard, the glory o± 
all his armies, had been kept in reserve. 

Forming them into two columns, and putting them 
under the command of the dauntless Ney, he pointed 
to the terrific forest into which they must move like a 
falling bolt from the clouds. A throne, and the future 
of empires, hung on the issue of the hour. As the Im- 
perial Gruard marched forward in silence, Napoleon 
said, "Heroes of all my victories, I confide to you mj 
empire." They answered with a sifigle shout, " Yive 
I'Empereur !" and without a note of martial music, they 
went with resolute step toward the glittering steel, 
and yawning mouths of war's wasting engines, over 
which stood the manliest forms of England and her 
allies. Ney had never been conquered, and the de- 
sertion of his sovereign, moved him to the onset with 
burning ardor. Napoleon from the elevation watched 
the meeting of the fearless band with the waiting legions. 

The plain was crossed, and the Old Guard made 
a charge to which no battle-plain had trembled be- 
fore. In flarne and smoke they disappeared, and 
neither they nor Napoleon knew where they were. 
The shock was felt along the columns of the Iron 
Duke, and made a momentary pause, only to pour a 
more consuming fire upon the devoted band. Napo- 
leon saw through his glass the slaughter of that last 
defense of his throne, and with a paleness on his face, 
and anguish in his heart, threw himself into a square, 
resolved to perish with his dving heroes. Cam- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 447 

bronne, the commander of the troops around the em- 
peror, entreated him to save his life. He yielded, and, 
turning away from the exultant enemy, rode toward 
Paris, The remnant of the brave men, who gazed 
after Napoleon, was soon surrounded by the victors, 
and a flag of truce sent to spare the needless carnage. 
Cambronne replied in the memorable words of hero- 
ism, " The Guard dies ; it never surrenders P'' The 
sound of his voice died away in the fresh volley of 
balls, and soon the Old Guard was no more. Night 
came down, and the good angels watched with grief 
over forty thousand bleeding bodies of the slain, while 
the silence of their vigil was broken by the groans of 
many hundreds wounded and writhing in a bed of gore. 

Wellington had lost one hundred officers and fif- 
teen thousand men ; while of the seventy-five thou- 
sand Napoleon led to battle, no more than thirty 
thousand ever bore arms again. The Prussians pur- 
sued the flying fugitives, and butchery crimsoned 
every village and hamlet in their path. Napoleon 
hastened to Quatre-Bras, and contemplated still an- 
other rally, which was there proposed, then proceeded 
to Charleroi, riding all night, while tbe sound of pur- 
suit came to his ear on the quiet air. 

" On the 19th the capital had been greeted with the 
news of three great victories, at Charleroi, at Ligny, 
and at Quatre-Bras, and one hundred and thirty cannon 
fired in honor of the emperor's successes ; his partisans 
proclaimed that the glory of France was secured, and 
dejection filled the hearts of the royalists. On the 
morning of the 21st it transpired that Napoleon had 
arrived the night before alone at the Elysee. The 
secret could no longer be kept. A great, a decisive 
field had been fought, and the Frencli army was no 
more. 



448 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

" On how sand J a foundation the exile of Elba bad 
rebuilt the semblance of bis ancient authority, a few 
hours of adversity were more than su£B.cient to show." 

He conversed freely with- Caulain'court upon the 
disasters of the day, bitterly condemned Bourmont, 
complained of Grouchy, and expressed his purpose 
of uniting the two Chambers in an imperial sitting. 
But they had anticipated his order, when the tidings 
of "Waterloo reached them. The allies, like a locust- 
swarm, a million strong, were ready to fall upon Paris, 
and panic spread through the capital. Napoleon as- 
sembled the Council of State, and vividly portraying 
the crisis of the nation, urged the necessity of a tem- 
porary dictatorship to save the fortunes of France. 
Carnot, it seems, now approved the measure, and gave 
his voice for it. But it was af&rmed that in the Cham- 
bers the tide was setting against the emperor, and the 
sacrifice of their former idol was plainly the ruling 
sentiment. La Fayette was the advocate of this last 
resort, to avoid " the seas of blood" which must flow 
if the effort to regain the throne were continued. But 
Napoleon clung with desperate energy to the crum- 
bling sceptre in his hand. He planned a new campaign 
to sweep the allies from the soil — already drenched in 
the life-current, and fattened with the bodies of men. 
The Chambers continued for several days their stormy 
debate. Lucien, who with Joseph had repaired to the 
Elysee, advised the emperor to rally the relics of hia 
Guard and dissolve the hostile assemblies as he had 
done at St. Cloud on the 19th of Brumaire. The 
transcendant genius of Napoleon, under the pressure 
of these opposing forces, and sustaining the agony of 
a crushed heart, was bewildered ; and Lucien, in view 
of it always said, " The smoke of Mont St. Jean had 
turned his brain." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 449 

During tliese mental conflicts and excited debates, 
the Chambers had reached the vote upon the em- 
peror's abdication, when, having seen the unavoidable 
and overwhelming necessity, he sent bj the hand 
of the willing, treasonable Fouche, who secretly re- 
joiced in the overthrow of Napoleon, the subjoined 
proclamation " To the French people :" 

" Frenchmen ! In commencing war for the main- 
tenance of the national independence, I relied on the 
union of all efforts, all wills, and all authorities. I 
had reason to hope for success, and I braved all the 
declarations of the powers against me. Circumstances 
appear to have changed. I offer myself as a sacrifice 
to the hatred of the enemies of France. May they 
prove sincere in their declarations, and to have aimed 
only at me ! My political life is ended ; and I pro- 
claim my son, Napoleon II., Emperor of the French. 
Unite for the public safety, if you would remain an 
independent nation. — Done at the palace Elysee, June 
22d, 1815. 

Napoleon." 

A fierce discussion followed the reading of this 
paper. Marshal Ney gave his voice for peace, even 
with a Bourbon throne. The Chambers finally ap- 
pointed a deputation to wait upon Napoleon, accept 
the abdication, and expressing the gratitude of the 
nation for his great sacrifices and glorious deeds 
in its behalf. He thanked the delegation — warned 
them of their mistake — and pointed them to his dy- 
nasty as the only hope of France. 

Thus closed the second and brief reign of the mosi 
gifted sovereign of any age — thus ended the hundred 
days of Napoleon. 



CHAPTER 1. 

The second abdication. — The indecision and distress of Napoleon. — He 
resolves to take refuge in the United States. — He leaves Mal« 
maison for Rochefort. — Letter from Bertrand to Joseph. — Negotia- 
tions "with England for passports. — These are denied. — Napoleon 
throws himself upon the mercy of England. — The reception, and 
voj'^age to the English coast. — The decision respecting tlie emperor's 
fate. — He contemplates suicide. — The departure for St. Helena. — 
Arrival at the island. — Napoleon's residence. — His treatment in 
exUe. — His habits. — Progress of disease. — His religious character. — 
His last hours. — General Bertrand's account of the emperor's 
death. — His burial. — The removal of his remains to France. 

The last desire of the emperor when he resigned his 
crown, was the immediate elevation of Napoleon II. 
to the prospective sovereignty of France. Labedoyer 
pleaded for it in the Senate. The soldiery caught the 
entliusiasm of this rallying shout. Fouche, who had 
been placed at the head of the provisional government, 
and preferred the Bourbons, became alarmed, and sug- 
gested the importance of the emperor's removal from 
Paris. June 25th, disguised in ordinary apparel, he 
retired to the lovely grounds and quiet rooms of Mal- 
maison, " but was no longer greeted by the warm era- 
brace of Josephine — the divorced wife had forgotten 
all her wrongs and. her sorrows, in the hallowed pre- 
cincts of the village church of Euel. What may have 
been the feelings of the fallen emperor, as he walked 
through the deserted halls of Malmaison at midnight 
in the midst of the ruins of his empire, and so near 
the ashes of his divorced Josephine, we do not wish 
to know. As he had lingered at the Kremlin, Dres- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 451 

den, and Fontainebleau — the three stages of his ruin — ■ 
so did he linger at Malmaison. The spell was still 
over him — fate had decreed that when the sapped 
castle at last fell, the ruin should be complete." 

Had he, as he contemplated, embarked without de 
laj for the United States, he might have been the 
illustrious citizen of a repubhc he admired but did not 
attempt to copy for war-ravaged France, neither de- 
sired, while his dynasty could fill the throne. Napo- 
leon's retreat became a guarded prison, surrounded 
with soldiers under the command of General Becker. 
Fouche was playing a double game of treachery : urg- 
ing the emperor's departure from France in two frigates 
furnished for his service, and, at the same time, com- 
municating with the alHes respecting his movements. 
While the provisional government was afraid of his 
escape from Malmaison to lead again his battalions 
into the field, the allies were lining the coast with a 
naval force, to prevent his flight to a foreign shore, 
and secure the hated victim of their resistless power. 

An asylum in the United States was finally the 
choice of the emperor. Application was made to 
Wellington for passports, but the duke replied that he 
had no authority whatever to give a safe-conduct to 
Napoleon Bonaparte. 

Meanwhile the mind of the captive, which had been 
driven from one plan of desperate action to another, 
was soothed by the presence of the lovely Hortense, 
faithful to her mother's example, and the devoted 
Caulaincourt — with a throng of friends, both officers 
and citizens, whose sympathy was sincere, and whose 
lives they were ready to oifer on the altar of their 
affection. June 29th, amid the beauty and joy of sum- 
mer at Malmaison, he bade adieu to Hortense, glanced 
over the familiar scenes, hallowed by the memories of 



452 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Josephine, we may not doubt with bitter thoughts of 
irreparable wrong, passed, out of the open gate which 
he should enter never again, and with General Becker, 
Count Bertrand, and Savarj, in the carriage assigned 
him, hastened toward Eochefort. The procession of 
personal friends who resolved to share his exile, were 
to join the emperor by a different road. At night 
Napoleon rested in the castle of Eambouillet, thirty 
miles from Malmaison. With the early light of the 
next day, he pressed forward, and driving all the 
night following, halted at Tours on the first of July. 

He reached Eochefort on the 3d, and took up his 
residence in the prefect's house, with the view of em- 
barking immediately : but he forthwith was informed 
that a British line-of -battle ship, the Bellerophon, Cap- 
tain Maitland, and some smaller vessels of war, were 
off the roads, and given to understand that the com- 
manders of the squadron at his own disposal showed 
no disposition to attempt the passage out in face of 
these watchers. A Danish merchant ship was then 
hired, and the emperor occupied himself with various 
devices for concealing his person in the hold of this 
vessel. Bat the Danish captain convinced him ere 
long that the British searchers would not be likely to 
pass him undetected, and this plan, too, was abandoned. 
Some young French midshipmen then gallantly 
offered to act as the crew of a small flat coasting 
vessel, a chaussee-marree, and attempt the escape in this 
way under cover of night. But all experienced sea- 
men concurred in representing the imminent hazard 
of exposing such a vessel to the Atlantic, as well as 
the numberless chances of its also being detected by 
the English cruisers. " Wherever wood can swim," 
said Napoleon, " there I am sure to find this flag of 
England." 



I 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 453 

July 9th, Napoleon landed on the Isle of Aix, off 
which the Sanle and Medusa were anchored. The 
allies had entered Paris, and were virtually in pos- 
session of the sovereignty, whicli Fouche formally 
held for the Bourbon king. The excitement which 
the emperor's presence on the island awakened, 
brought the order to the commander of the frigate, 
that " the act of disembarking Napoleon again upon 
the soil of France" would be declared high treason. 
The friends of the emperor believed that an appeal to 
the hospitality of England would be rewarded with a 
magnanimous treatment of his person. It was plainly 
the only alternative ; and July 14th, Las Cases and 
Savary went the second time on board the Bellero- 
phon under a flag of truce, to enquire whether Napo- 
leon would be received in that vessel if he decided to 
go to England. They were assured by Captain Mait- 
land that the ship was at his disposal for safe con- 
veyance to Britain. He immediately despatched the 
following note to the prince regent, afterward George 
IV., written the preceding day : 

"ROCHEFORT, July 13, 1815. 

" Royal Highness — A victim to the factions whicli 
divide my country, and to the hostility of the greatest 
powers of Europe, I bave terminated my political 
career, and come, like Themistocles, to seat myself on 
the beartb of the British people. I put myself under 
tbe protection of their laws, which. I claim from your 
royal higbness, as the most powerful, the most con- 
stant, and the most generous of my enemies. 

" Napoleon." 

General Bertrand at this date informed Joseph of 
the decisive step taken. 



454 LIFE OF. JSTAPOLEOK BONAPARTE. 



BERTEAND TO JOSEPH. 

" Isle of Aix, July 14, 1S15. 
" Prince — The emperor communicated this morn- 
ing with the British cruisers. The admiral's answer 
has not readied us, but the captain* is ordered by tbe 
government to receive tTie emperor if he snould pre- 
sent himself with the persons composing his suite. 
The captain is not acquainted with the further inten- 
tions of his government ; but he does not doubt that 
the emperor will be well treated; for, even if the 
government should wish to act otherwise, public 
opinion in England will, he thinks, force them to 
behave as they ought to do on such an occasion. M. 
de Las-Cases has returned on board,f and to-morrow 
morning the emperor will repair thither. His majesty 
desires me to give you this information." 

It is evident, therefore, that no pledge regarding tne 
•ultimate action of the English cabinet was given ; but 
Napoleon threw himself entirely upon the honor and 
generosity of his foe, in the conscious dignity of his 
position, and reliance upon the popular feeling in the 
empire to whose shore he sailed. The letter was com- 
mitted by Maitland to Gourgaud, who proceeded with 
it in the Slaney^ but was not allowed to land ; it was 
sent by other hands to the prince regent. July 15th 
the brig Epervier conveyed him out of the Aix roads. 
The wind was unfavorable, and the barge of the Bel- 
lerophon bore him to the ship. Tears fell, and shouts 
rose long and loud while he moved away from French 
soil, French vessels, and French soldiers, neither of 
which his feet or hands should press again. The 

* Maitland of the BelkropJion. 
\ The Bellerophon. 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 455 

officers of the Bellerophoji awaited the appearing of 
Napoleon, with the marines drawn up in order be- 
hind them. When he reached the quarter-deck, 
uncovering himself, he said calmly and firmly to 
Captain Maitland, "I come to place myself under the 
protection of your prince and laws." The commander 
answered with a bow, and conducted him to his cabin. 
The officers were then presented, and, as everywhere, 
the emperor became popular with all whom he met — 
the crew especially admiring the wonderful man of 
whose terrible presence on the field of battle they had 
only heard. He made himself familiar with every 
part of the ship, and complimented highly the quiet 
subordination and superior discipline of the English 
navy. On the 23d the Bellerophon passed Ushant, 
where a view of the coast of France arrested the 
mighty exile's moistened eye. He gazed silently and 
sadly upon the dim outline of his arena of greatness 
and glory ; but his crowding thoughts and deep emo- 
tion no pen was permitted to record. The 25th the 
vessel which attracted toward it the interest of a hemi- 
sphere, dropped anchor in the harbor of Torbay, 
amid countless boats crowded with curious people, 
whose shouts greeted Napoleon as often as he appear- 
ed on deck to gratify ttie intense interest his name and 
fate awakened. All communication of the Bellero- 
phon with the coast was forbidden, and, after a sus- 
pense of a few hours, orders came to proceed to 
Plymouth Sound. At noon of the following day, the 
ship's sails were furled before that ancient town. The 
respectful and kindly attentions to the emperor, which 
had marked the voyage, gave place to the stern for- 
malities of guarding the captive, while his doom was 
in the hands of the Privy Council. The populace 
from a great distance poured into Plymouth, and the 



456 LIFE OF-KAPOLEON BONAPAETE. 

excitement became so strong, that "two frigates were 
appointed to lie as guards on tlie Bellerophon^ and 
sentinels were doubled and trebled botb bj day and 
night." Upon tlae 80th, Sir Henry Banbury, under- 
secretary of state, with Admiral Keith of the channel 
fleet, announced the final decision of the Britisli 
government, whose main provisions were these: "1st, 
That General Bonaparte should not be landed in Eng- 
land, but removed forthwith to St. Helena, as being 
the situation in which, more than any othei at their 
command, the government thought security against a 
second escape, and the indulgence to himself of per- 
sonal freedom and exercise, might be reconciled. 
2dly, That, with the exceptions of Savary and L'Alle- 
mand, he might take with him any three ofi&cers he 
chose, as also his surgeon, and twelve domestics." 

Napoleon betrayed no agitation when the surprising 
document was finished, but with perfect composure im- 
mediately protested against the unjust decree with his 
own unequaled eloquence : " t am the guest of England, 
and not her prisoner. I have come, of my own accord, 
to place myself under the protection of British law. In 
my case the government has violated the laws of its 
own country, the laws of nations, and the sacred duty 
of hospitality. I protest agafnst their right to act 
thus, and appeal to British honor." The emperor 
complained of the inexcusable insult of refusing to 
give him his imperial title, recognizing him only as 
General Bonaparte. He recoiled from exile on a 
rocky island between the tropics, and again contem- 
plated suicide. He said, " After all, am I quite sure 
of going to St. Helena ? Is a man dependent upon 
others when he wishes that his dependence should 
cease? * * * It is only necessary to create a little 
mental excitement, and I shall soon have escaped." 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPAllTE. 457 

Las Cases remonstrated, and suggested the memories 
of the past upon which to live, and the unwritten re- 
cord of his grand career to be prepared for the future, 
Thie dark and criminal thought was banished, and 
=iubmission to his destiny was the imperative necessity, 
riiere is some palliation for the extraordinary and 
unlawful course of England. Napoleon had escaped 
from Elba. His name w^as still a spell-word in 
France, and his influence over the masses immeasur- 
ably greater than that of any other living man. The 
British cabinet were afraid of his presence where the 
possibility of rescue should attend him. From the 
beginning, fighting for ancient, transmitted royalty, 
regarding Napoleon as a new man — with a system 
subversive of the established order of things — and 
having learned to fear him more than all the kings 
of Europe besides — the English ministry w^cre deter- 
mined to cage the imperial lion. 

While this view modifies the treatment, it does not 
remove the indelible stain of needless cruelty in the 
banishment and confinement of the noblest foe Brit- 
ain ever met and subdued. 

Preparations were now hastened for the voyage to 
St. Helena. O'Meara, sui'geon of the Bellerophon^ ac- 
cepted heartily the appointment of Napoleon's phy- 
sician. The remainder of his suite were Counf Mon- 
tbolon and his lady ; Count Bertrand, lady, and three 
children ; Baron Gourgaud, and Count Las Cases. 
The Northumberland, commanded by Sir George 
Cockburn, arrived August 7th, and received Napoleon 
with his circle of friends on board. The emperor 
bade adieu very cordially to Captain Maitland and his 
officers, thanking them for their magnanimous bearing 
toward him while in the Bellerophon. The testimony 
of Maitland respecting his prisoner is very beautiful. 

20 



4:58 LIFE OF 'napoleon BONAPARTE. 

He writes, " It may appear surprising that a possibility 
should exist of a British ofEicer being prejudiced in 
favor of one who had caused so many calamities to 
his country ; but to such an extent did he possess the 
power of pleasing, that there are few people who 
could have sat at the same table with him for nearly 
a month, as I did, without feeling a sensation of pity, 
perhaps allied to regret, that a man possessed of so 
many fascinating qualities, and who had held so high 
a station in life, should be reduced to the situation in 
which I saw him." 

The Norihumherland sailed August 9th, 1815, at- 
tended by a fleet of nine vessels. While they were 
tacking out of the channel. Napoleon looked toward 
the coast of France, with straining vision, to catch 
one more glimpse of its distant outline. The clouds 
lifting gave him the sight, and " France I France !" 
was the shout of the self exiled companions of the 
captive-king. The emperor gazed silently, and then 
uncovering his head, he exclaimed, " Land of the brave, 
I salute thee! Farewell! France, farewell!" The 
spectators were deeply moved. During the voj^age 
Napoleon threw the fascination of his conversational 
powers over all, winning the love of those who had 
been taught to hate him. 

October 15, the cry of "Land!" from the mast-head, 
attracted toward. the rising form of an island the 
mournful interest of the royal party; and the next 
day the Northumberland cast anchor in the harbor of 
St. Helena. It lies six thousand miles from Europe, 
and one thousand two hundred miles from the coast 
of Africa. It is ten miles in length, and six broad, 
with precipitous cliifs, preventing access, except by 
three narrow defiles. 

Much of it is barren rock, with pleasant valleys 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 459 

relieving this desolation amid tlie infinitude of waters. 
The 16th Napoleon disembarked, and walked in the 
shades of evening the streets of Jamestown. 

No apartments suitable for the reception of the 
exile were found in the lonely desert to which he was 
borne. Longwood, three miles from Jamestown, the 
country house of the lieutenant-governor, and situated 
in a wild ravine, was selected for the residence of Na- 
poleon. 

With the alterations which were designed, it was a 
scant}^, solitary habitation, assigned to the greatest 
monarch of the world, and his fliithful band of friends. 
The immediate residence to which he repaired was 
called Tlie Briers — a small and secluded farm-house, 
occupied by Mr. Balcombe, who made every effort to 
afford him a comfortable seclusion. 

Napoleon's bitter complaints and appeals to the 
En2;lish government were in vain — nothing was done 
to cheer the solitude of the powerless sovereign, 

December 10th, the emperor removed to Longwood. 
Guards and sentinels encircled his grounds, and no 
means of security were spared to make escape from 
the prison-isle impossible. In the spring of 1816, there 
was a change in the government of St. Helena, which 
increased the annoyances and trials of Napoleon. In 
reference to it Lockhart, in whose biography of the 
captive is the severest and most unqualified condemna- 
tion of his motives and deeds, writes the following : 

"In April, 1816, Sir George Cockburn was super- 
seded by Sir Hudson Lowe, who remained governor 
of St. Helena, and had the charge of Napoleon's per- 
son until his death. The conduct of this of&cer has 
been much and justly censured by various writers. 
Napoleon conceived and retained from the first a vio- 
lent dislike toward him ; ^nd the governor, as soon 



460 LIFE OF FAPOLEOK BONAPAETE. 

as he became aware of tins, did not fail fully to recip- 
rocate it. It seemed that every circumstance, whether 
of business or of etiquette, which occurred at St. Helena, 
was certain to occasion some dispute between the two, 
the progress and termination of which, seldom passed 
without an aggravation of mntual hostilities. It was 
deemed necessary that the greatest vigilance should be 
exercised, which could not be done without giving 
offense to the haughty mind of Napoleon ; and rather 
than submit to the restraints which were imposed, he 
often chose to seclude himself within the precincts of 
Lpngwood. It can not be doubted but that the con- 
stant irritation in which he was kept toward the 
governor was a principal means of shortening his 
life." 

And yet in the late publication of the Letters and 
Journal of Sir Hudson Lowe, edited by William For- 
syth, we have quite a different view of the matter. 
And it is no easy task to reach a just conclusion be- 
tween these conflicting statements from official papers 
and private diaries. It is difficult to discern how 
much is coloring for mere effect, and which are the 
unadorned facts in the case. Sir Hudson Lowe's 
iournal gives the regulations, bill of fare, and allow- 
ance of wines ; all of which, if these statemente-are at 
all reliable, were ample, and should have been satis- 
factory. But upon comparing the notes of both 
friends and foes, including the sale of silver plate, 
which it was af&rmed Napoleon resorted to, that he 
might not suffer hunger, we are compelled to believe 
that mucli was done and said by the exiles to awaken 
sym]>athy in their behalf, and hatred to England; while 
on the other hand, in perfect harmony with the feel- 
ings and conduct of the British ministry from the 
dawn of Napoleon's greatness, they did pursue, even Id 



LIFE OF NArOLEON BONAPARTE. ^01 

exile, with enmity and injustice the man whose single 
hand had shaken the throne of their splendid empire. 

Napoleoa was much of the time cheerful, but often 
desponding, indignant, and unhappy. Without re- 
ligious trust, and surrounded by skeptical minds, of 
whom Montholon was acknowledged to be without 
character for truthfulness, he certainly was no model 
of resignation — no martyr, calm in conscious recti- 
tude and purity of purpose. The visions of indi- 
vidual and wide- spread suffering of Egypt, Spain, and 
Eussia, and, more than all else, of Josep/ime, which 
swept over the horizon of thought, must have increased 
his disquietude, and irritable moods. It is true, he 
bore eloquent testimony to the transcendent excellence 
of the Scriptures, and the deity of Christ, but not a 
day in his life displayed the practical power of either 
upon his heart. 

His manner of living was regular and abstemious ; 
" he never took more than two meals a day, and con- 
cluded each with a cup of coffee. He generally break- 
fasted about ten o'clock, and dined at eight. He pre- 
ferred plain food, and ate plentifully, with an appar- 
ent appetite. A very few glasses of claret, scarce 
amounting to an English pint, which he chiefly drank 
at dinner, completed his meal. He sometimes drank 
champagne, but his constitutional sobriety was such 
that a large glass of that wine would bring the color 
to his cheek; and it may be truly said that few men 
were ever less influenced by the appetites peculiar to 
man than Bonaparte. He was exceedingly particular 
as to the neatness and cleanliness of his person, and 
this habit he preserved till his death." 

In converse with friends, when his kingly mind 
displayed on social, civil, scientific and moral themes, 
the amazing scope of its knowledge and its penetra- 



-i62 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

tion — in walks, wliicli gradual! 3" ceased as his antipa- 
thy toward the espionage under which he moved be- 
came more intense — in dictating protests against the 
cruelty of his foes, and memoirs with which to em- 
balm and vindicate his fame — Napoleon passed more 
than five years of captivity ; which drew to it the 
interest of the world — an interest born of idolatrous 
admiration, intellectual homage, military enthusiasm, 
kindest sympathy, and deepest hate. 

The neglect of exercise, and the mental struggles 
of the emperor began to develop constitutional dis- 
ease, and weaken those physical energies which 
were no less marvelous than his versatile genius. 
In 1817 the decay of strength became visible, and 
with intervals of relief and comfortable convalescence, 
he steadily declined. O'Meara was his medical at- 
tendant till the summer of 1818, when Sir Hudson 
Lowe removed him on account of his sympathy with 
Napoleon. The lieutenant-general offered him the 
services of an English ph^i'sician, which were promptly 
refused. The following year the British government 
consented to the appointment of another medical ad 
viser by his friends in Europe ; and Dr. Antomarchi, 
an atheist, accompanied by two Romish priests, at the 
suggestion of Napoleon, arrived at St. Helena. The 
interviews with these ecclesiastics were evidently 
without much spiritual benefit. Notwithstanding the 
effort of a late writer to invest the captive's whole 
character, especially when its finishing touches were 
received under the deepening shadows of his last 
hours, with Christian graces, we hear him discoursing 
of the Elysiau fields, where he anticipatedaneeting with 
his marshals, with Hannibal, and Cassar, and having a 
pleasant talk over their battles ; unless, he continued, "it 
should create an alarm in the spirit-world to see so many 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 463 

warriors assembled together." This certainly was 
nothing better than trifling, and the whole tenor of 
his conversation on this momentous theme was want- 
ing in any satisfactory recognition of his relations to 
God, and bis mission among men. At the close of 
1820 bis symptoms grew worse ; bis stomach rejected 
food ; bis repose was disturbed, and his frame became 
emaciated. While tlie succeeding spring was cloth- 
ing the wild forests with verdure, and hanging flowers 
upon the cliffs of St. Helena, Napoleon was rapidly 
sinking in the embrace of his fatal malady, lie 
made the disposition of bis gifts to friends, and dic- 
tated bis will, which contained " for a codicil, ten 
thousand francs to the wretch who attempted to as- 
sassinate the Duke of Wellington." 

The reason assigned for this astonishing act < f a 
dying man, is, that " Cantallon had as much right to 
murder that oligarchist, as the latter bad to send me 
to j)erish on the rock of St. Helena." 

But the close of the scenes of earth drew near. 
May 3d the last sacraments of the Catholic church 
were administered by Abbe Vignali. The night of 
the 4th was one of delirium. The tempest began to 
rise, while the most fearful conflict of the greatest 
conqueror of men was subsiding in the victory of his 
last enemy. 

Amid the roar of elements, his mighty — ambitious 
— broken heart — shouted wildly, "Tete d'armee !" 
Head of the army ! The morning broke upon the spent 
warrior ; helpless in the stupor of death's approach, 
he lay till the tempestuous day was fading into even- 
ing, when the proud spirit passed away to the right- 
eous tribunal of the King of kinos. 

A post-mortem examination revealed, what Napo- 
leon hud for some time previous to his death suspected, 



464 LIFE OF KAPOLEON BOjSTAPAETE. 

that like his father before him, he was the victim of a 
cancer in the stomach — aggravated by those influences 
which of themselves would have made inroads upon 
his fine constitution. 

A letter from Bertrand addressed to Joseph, who 
had taken refuge in America, and was living in New 
Jersey, gives an interesting narrative of these events : 

BERTKAKD TO JOSEPH. 

"London, September 10, 1821. 

" Prince — I write to you for the first time since the 
awful misfortune which has been added to the sorrows 
of your family. Uncertain whether a letter would 
reach you, as I was not quite sure of your address, I 
hoped that a letter from you or from Eome would 
acquaint me with it. I have decided on depositing 
this letter with Messrs. Baring, and I hope that you 
will receive it. 

"Your highness is acquainted with the events of the 
first years of this cruel exile; many persons who have 
visited St. Helena have informed you of what was 
still more interesting to you— the manner of living 
and the unkind treatment which aggravated tlie influ- 
ences of a deadly climate. 

" In the last year of his life, the emperor, who for 
four years had taken no exercise, altered extremely in 
appearance : he became pale and feeble. From that 
time his health deteriorated rapidly and visibly. He 
jfiad always been in the habit of taking batiis ; he now 
took them more frequently and stayed longer in them : 
they appeared to relieve him for the time. 

" Latterly, Dr. Antomarchi forbade him their use, as 
he thought that they only increased his weakness. 

" In the month of August he took walking exercise, 
but with difficulty ; he was forced to stop ever_y miu- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 465 

me. In the first yoars lie used to walk while dictat- 
ing ; he walked about his room, and thus did without 
the exercise which he feared to take out of doors lest 
he should expose himself to insult. But latterly his 
strength would not admit even of this. He remained 
sitting nearly all day, and discontinued almost all 
occupation. His health declined sensibly every month. 

" Once in September, and again in the beginning of 
October, he rode out, as his physicians desired him to 
take exercise; but he was so weak that he was obliged 
to return in his carriage. He ceased to digest ; his 
debility increased. Shivering fits came on, which ex- 
tended even to the extremities ; hot towels applied to 
the feet gave him some relief. He suffered from these 
cold fits to the last hour of his life. As he could no 
longer either walk or ride, he took several drives in 
an open carriage at a foot pace, but without gaining 
strength. He never took off his dressing-gown. His 
stomach rejected food, and at the end of the year he 
was forced to give up meat; he lived upon jellies 
and soups. For some time he ate scarcely any thing, 
and drank only a little pure wine, hoping thus to sup- 
port nature without fatiguing the digestion ; but the 
vomiting continued, and he returned to soups and 
jellies. The remedies and tonics which were tried 
produced little effect. His body grew weaker every 
day, but his mind retained its strength. 

" He liked reading and conversation ; he did not dic- 
tate much, although he did so from time to time up to 
the last days of his life. He felt that his end was ap- 
j)roaching, and he frequently recited the passage from 
' Za'ii'e' which finishes with this line : — 

" ' A revoir Paris je ne dois plus pretendro.' 

Nevertheless the hope of leaving this dreadful country 

20* 



40t) LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

often presented itself to his imagination ; some news- 
paper articles and false reports excited our expecta- 
tions. We sometimes fancied that we were on the eve 
of starting for America ; we read travels, we made 
plans, we arrived at your house, we wandered over 
that immense country, where alone we might hope 
to enjoy liberty, Yain hopes ! vain projects ; which 
only made us doubly feel our misfortunes, 

" They could not have been borne with more seren- 
ity and courage, I might almost add gayety. He often 
said to us ioithe evening, 'Where shall we go? to the 
Theater Frangais, or to the Opera?' And then he 
would read a tragedy by Corneille, Yoltaire, or Eacine ; 
an opera of Quinault's or one of Moliere's comedies. 
His strong mind and powerful character were perhaps 
even more remarkable than on that larger theater 
where he eclipsed all that is brightest in ancient and 
in modern history. He often seemed to forget what 
he had been, I was never tired of admiring his 
philosophy and courage, the good sense and -ihe forti- 
tude which raised him above misfortune. 

"At times, however, sad regrets and recollections 
of what he had done, contrasted with what he might 
have done, presented themselves. He talked of the 
past with perfect frankness ; persuaded that on the 
whole he had done what he was required to do, and 
not sharing the strange and contradictory opinions 
which we hear expressed every day on events which 
are not understood by the speakers. If the conversa- 
tion took a melancholy turn, he soon changed it ; he 
liked to talk of Corsica, of his old uncle Lucien, of his 
youth, of you, and of all the rest of the family. 

" Toward the middle of March fever came on. From 
that time he scarcely left his bed, except for about 
half an hour in the day ; he seldom had the strength 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 467 

to shave. He now for the first time became extremely 
thin. The fits of vomiting became more frequent. 
He then questioned the physicians on the conforaia- 
tion of the stomach, and about a fortnight before his 
death he had pretty nearly guessed that he was dying 
of cancer. He was read to almost everyday, and dic- 
tated a few days before his decease. He often talked 
naturally as to the probable mode of his death ; but 
when he became aware that it was approaching he left 
off speaking on the subject. He thought much about 
you and your children. To his last moment he was 
kind and affectionate to us all ; he did not api^ear to 
suffer so much as might have been expected from the 
cause of his death. When we questioned him, he 
said that he suffered a little, but that he could bear 
it. His memory declined during the last five or six 
days ;' his deep sighs, and his exclamations from time 
to time, made us think that he was in great pain. He 
looked at us with the penetrating glance which you 
know so well ; we tried to dissimulate, but he was so 
used to read our faces that no doubt he frequently 
discovered our anxiety. He felt too clearly the 
gradual decline of his faculties not to be aware of his 
state. 

" For the last two hours he neither spoke nor moved ; 
tlie only sound was his dif&cult breathing, which gradu- 
ally but regularly decreased ; his pulse ceased ; and 
so died, surrounded only by a few servants, the man 
wlio had dictated laws to the world, and whose life 
should have been preserved for the sake of the happi- 
ness and glory of our sorrowing country. 

" Forgive, Prince, a hurried letter, which tells you 
so little, when you wish to know so much.; but I 
should never end if I attempted to tell all. 

** You are so far off, that I know not when I shall 



1(38 LIFE OF N^APOLEON BONAPARTE. 

have the honor of seeing you agahi. I must not omit 
to say that the emperor was most anxious that his cor- 
respondence with the different sovereigns of Europe 
should be printed; he repeated this to us several 
times. In his will the emperor expressed a wish that 
his remains should be buried in France ; however, in 
the last days of his life he ordered me, if there was any 
dii3Eiculty about it, to lay him by the side of the fount- 
ain whose waters he had so long drank." 

ISTapoleon's body was dressed as in life, " with white 
waistcoat, and breeches, black cravat, long boots, and 
cocked hat." Thus laid out in a room hung with 
mourning, the military cloak worn at Marengo thrown 
over his feet, and a crucifix on his breast, the Abbe 
Vignali said prayers for the repose of his soul, while 
the spreading intelligence of his death brought many 
to the place of mourning. On the morning of the 8th, 
the corpse was removed to a coffin of tin, enclosed in 
lead, which was covered by another of mahogany, and 
drawn by four horses, was borne to the secluded spot 
the departed emperor had chosen. 

Sir Hudson Lowe remarked amid these last offices, 
'"' He was England's greatest enemy and mine too ; 
but I forgive him." The 27th witnessed the embarka- 
tion of the household friends of Napoleon for France. 

July, 1830, brought a new revolution there — the 
Bourbons were driven from the throne, and Louis 
Phillipe crowned. The Chamber of Deputies present- 
ed a petition.^ asking for a demand upon the English 
government for the remains of Napoleon to repose, 
according to his desire, upon the banks of the Seine. 
But decisive action was delayed. In July, 1832, the 
only son of the emperor, named King of Eome, but 
called by the Austrian monarch the Duke of Eeich- 



LIFE OF NAPOLEON" BONAPARTE. 469 

stadt, died at the age of twentj-one years — terminating, 
in a direct line, the dynasty for winch a wife had been 
immolated upon the altar of ambition. 

In tlie spring of 1840, M. Guizot presented the 
claim for Napoleon's ashes to the British ministry. A 
few days later, the following note was sent by Lord 
Palmerston, in reply : 

"The government of her Britannic Majesty hopes 
that the promptness of its answer may be considered 
in France as a proof of its desire to blot out the last 
trace of those national animosities Avhich, during the 
life of the emperor, armed England and France against 
each other. Her majesty's government hopes that if 
such sentiments survive anywhere, they may be buried 
in the tomb about to receive the remains of Napo- 
leon." 

Accordingly the Prince de Joinville, with two war- 
ships, sailed for St. Helena. He arrived on the 8th 
of October, and upon the 15th, the anniversary day of 
Napoleon's landing there, the work of exhuming the 
remains commenced. After nine hours of labor, the 
coflGin was lifted to the light of heaven. The cover- 
ings of the silent form were removed, and there, unde- 
cayed, lay the marble face, whose expression had awed 
the kings of Europe. A tempest rose and sounded 
the requiem of the funeral march of the second burial, 
as it had done the transit of his soul to the realm of 
spirits. 

Amid the firing of salutes, and beneath flying ban- 
ners, the coffin was conveyed to the ship. It sailed 
on the 18th of October for France — a quarter of a cen- 
tury after his exile began. 

December 2d, the flotilla reached the harbor of Cher- 
bourg, where the remains were received by the steam- 
ship Normandy, and conveyed to the mouth of the 



470 LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

Seine. The progress of tlie imposing ceremonial was 
attended by all the display of popular enthusiasm pe- 
culiar to the nation, and which was so grateful to the 
living emperor, but now fell upon the ray less eye, and 
" dull, cold ear of death." 

At Havre, the rich sarcophagus of ebony was placed 
on an imperial barge in a miniature chapel, covered 
with emblems of mourning, and the funeral cortege 
of twelve steamers moved up the river Seine, toward 
Paris. 

Along the banks^ for a hundred miles, the populace 
stood in endless lines, and over them waved gorge- 
ous flags — 'and above them rose the triumphal arches 
and pyramids covered with purple and spangled with 
golden stars. We can not feel for a' moment in the 
sober light of revelation, that the answer to a question 
proposed by a biographer of the departed warrior, is at 
all doubtful of solution: "Did Kapoleon, from the 
spirit land, witness this scene, and rejoice in the tri- 
umph of his fame?" He had to do with more serious 
employments, and a calmer, clearer review of his 
crimson path of renown, than the illusions of earth 
allowed. 

In the afternoon of the 14:th, the cortege arrived at 
Courbevoie four miles from the capital 

A statue of Josephine welcomed the ashes of him 
who had broken- her heart, while Maria Louisa was 
quietly living at Parma, apparently careless of the 
stirring pageantry as the throngs were forgetful of her. 

The remains were taken on shore to a Grecian tem- 
}/le constructed for the occasion, and thence placed 
upon a magnificent funeral car. Thronged with ex- 
cited millions, the royal chariot passed on to the 
chux'ch of the Invalides, which was decorated with 
splendor exceeding that of any oriental palace. Upon 



LIFE OF KAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 471 

the shoulders of thirty-two of the Old Guard, it «^g 
borne toward its resting-place in the temple, w|^ 
Louis Phillipe and the dignitaries of state advanced 
to receive the sacred relics. 

The coffin was deposited in the catafalque, the 
sword of Napoleon laid upon it bj General Bertrand, 
mass was celebrated, and the crowd slowly left the 
illustrious dead to the silence of that repose which 
mocks the strife, the ambition, and the glory of men 

Napoleon was great — intellectually towering above 
the princes and monqrchs of many generations, as 
Mont Blanc overtops the Alps and the Apennines. 
He had no rival in the tactics of war — in the sanguin- 
ary tragedies, whose actors were kings, and whose 
arena was a hemisphere. His ardent imagination was 
under the guidance of reason, whose intuitions were 
clear as morning light, and as rapid in their compre- 
hensive action. His sovereignty was more elevating 
to the masses, and far-reaching in its aims, than that 
of any of his lauded foes. But he was " a moral 
dwarfs'''' and even in his magnanimous deeds, alwaj'-s 
advanced his fame. He aspired after unquestioned 
pre-eminence among the thrones of Europe, but he 
had not the higher qualities of heart and the pure 
philanthropy which would have made it safe to hold 
the power that seemed at times within his grasp. 

Eulers and people of future generations will muse 
with wondering over his brilliant career — the wide- 
spread suffering which attended it — ^the noble deedsjv 
the gigantic crimes, and the retributive fall of 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 



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